A Slayer Transformed
by Philip S
Summary: Buffy Transformers crossover. Faith meets the Transformers and its the start of the strangest adventure of her young life. The fifth episode continues with Faith enjoying some Predacon hospitality.
1. Pilot, p1 of 7

A Slayer Transformed, Episode 1: The Transformation  
by Philip S.  
Summary: When Faith, the Vampire Slayer, tries to stop a group of demons from getting their hands on a powerful alien artefact, her world becomes forever... transformed.  
Rating: PG-13 

Setting: The events of this story take place early in Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before Faith comes to town.

Author's Notes: Just a little idea I've been playing around with for a while. Not sure if I should continue it, so let me know what you think, okay?

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Part 1: To Save the Talking Fire Truck

The girl's name was Faith, just Faith. She had a last name, of course, but it had been a long time since it had mattered to her in any way. She had never known her father and her mother, well, she'd been happier never having known that bitch, either. She was on her own now and that was just the way she liked it. Or at least that is what she told herself.

Faith was a unique (or almost unique) individual. To the naked eye she might seem nothing more than an ordinary teenager, but she was far more than that. Blessed, or maybe cursed, to be this generation's protector from the forces of darkness, she'd been given powers beyond any mere human. She was the Slayer.

Being the Slayer entailed a lot of things. Enhanced speed, strength, and endurance, certainly. An uncanny sixth sense for picking up things that weren't quite natural, sometimes ending up in prophetic dreams, too. It also entailed being assigned a Watcher, a member of an ancient society of scholars and teachers who had taken it upon themselves to guide and train every new incarnation of the Slayer.

Faith's Watcher was dead now, which was part of the reason she had left her hometown of Boston and was now on the run. On the run to a town called Sunnydale, on the run from a very powerful vampire named Kakistos. Kakistos had been her first real challenge as the Slayer, seeing as she had only been the chosen one for about three months now, and she had quite thoroughly failed to meet this challenge. Kakistos had beaten her. And he had killed Clarice, her Watcher, right before her eyes.

So now she was on the run. The first thing on her mind was to escape from this monster that had torn her life apart. Clarice, her Watcher, had been the first person that had ever made her feel like she was worth something, like she was here on Earth for some kind of purpose. Now Clarice was dead and Faith had been unable to save her. Which made her feel useless in ways no one else had ever managed to make her feel, not even her bitch of a mother.

Kakistos was hunting her, that much she knew by now. Demons were a chatty lot, so she knew he had put a bounty on her head. He wanted her alive, though, not dead. No, that pleasure he wanted reserved for himself. In her panicked flight she had managed to wound him quite severely, putting out one of his eyes. It had only made him more angry, though, and now he wanted her in the worst way.

Ever since that night, three weeks ago now, Faith had been running non-stop. She stopped only to sleep and her dreams were filled with nightmares. It was ridiculous, really. Here she was, one of the most powerful beings on the face of the Earth, and she was running like a scared little girl. The truth was, though, that she was a scared little girl. One that had been forced to grow up way too fast and dumped into a world filled with monsters.

At this moment she was in a small town somewhere in California, waiting for a bus to take her to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles it wasn't far to Sunnydale, the town where she would find a representative of the Watchers Council. Maybe the Watchers would know what to do about Kakistos. Maybe they could help her escape from him. It wasn't much of a hope, but it was the only thing she had right now. So she sat waiting for her bus, uncomfortably aware that the sun had set.

Her feelings were pretty conflicted. Sunset meant the vampires and demons were coming out to play and the Slayer inside of her was filling her with an almost irresistible urge to go and seek them out, to kill them all before they could endanger innocents. The scared little girl knew, though, that one of those vampires out there might well be Kakistos and she would give anything never to encounter him again.

For the moment the scared little girl was stronger, so she kept sitting on the bench, waiting for the bus. Her chocolate-coloured eyes darted every which way, watching every shadow for signs of the hulking, brutish shape of her hunter. Under her jacket, within easy reach, was a stake, her preferred weapon for dealing with the Undead. She didn't fear any normal vampire coming after her, she could handle them. But she wasn't running from a normal vampire.

She was so focused on the shadows around her that she completely missed the approaching vehicle. A bright red fire truck, sirens wailing, thundered past her at speeds way too high for a small town street like this. She was momentarily blinded by the bright lights and deafened by the sirens, afterimages dancing in front of her eyes.

Recovering, she looked after the truck, seeing it heading towards a nearby building. The building was smoldering. Why hadn't she noticed that before? Quite a few people were out on the streets. Spectators, probably waiting for the flames to come bursting out of the building. Faith looked at the receding fire truck again. Something was off about it. It gave off... a vibe. Something that sparked her Slayer senses.

Checking the schedule, she realized that her bus would not arrive for another thirty minutes at least. Maybe more if the fire thing caused a delay. So she might as well check out the weird feeling she got from that truck. Some parts of her rebelled, jumping at every shadow, thinking it might be some kind of lure laid out by Kakistos. She chided herself. She might be scared shitless, but not of a fire truck or a fire. She was the Slayer, damn it!

Jogging over, she saw some flames were now visible from behind the building's windows. The fire truck had come to a stop alongside another truck already present. Water hoses flipped out from the ladder and started spraying the building's roof. Faith saw several firemen already hard at work, breaking down doors and searching the building for any people left inside.

There was something strange, though. The newly arrived fire truck looked much more modern than the one already there. Also, she had not seen anyone climbing out from it. From her vantage point she couldn't see into the driver's cabin. Was the driver directing the water hoses from in there?

Before she could think more about it, though, things started happening. The top floor of the four story building suddenly erupted, flames shooting out of shattering windows. The spectators quickly got some distance between themselves and the spectacle, driven back by the scalding heat and showers of glass shards raining down. Faith inched back as well. She was the Slayer, but she wasn't exactly fire proof or anything.

There it was again. A tingle, much stronger this time. It didn't come from the fire truck, though, but rather from somewhere inside the building. Faith hadn't been a Slayer that long, but she knew that tingle. Something was in there and whatever it was, it wasn't natural.

Her instincts took over, her eyes looking for some kind of entrance into the burning building. Reason told her to cut it out, the building was on fire, but she hardly listened. She had gone three weeks with barely any demon or vampire to slay and pent-up energy was bursting forth in a hurry. The tingle inside her head was intense, almost like an air raid siren, and left no room to argue.

The firemen were desperately trying to get the blaze under control, but Faith had the distinct feeling that they weren't going to succeed. Something unnatural was feeding these flames, something demonic. Mere water wouldn't put them out. She reached under her jacket for her stake, feeling safer with it in her hand. She found a side entrance and quickly used her strength to break open the lock.

The ground floor of the building was not in flames yet, but thick smoke obscured most of it from view. Faith coughed and quickly pulled up the neck of her T-shirt to protect her lungs as best as she could. Smoke inhalation could kill you almost as quickly as fire, she knew. Carefully she made her way deeper inside, letting herself be pulled along by her instincts.

The tingling was growing stronger. Something was in here. Something despite the heat and smoke that were quickly starting to take its toll on her. She'd have to wrap this up quickly. Dying in a fire might be a way to cheat Kakistos of what he wanted, but she didn't intend to die that easily.

Breaking open another door, she found herself looking into a big warehouse space, empty except for a few crates here and there. Wooden crates. They'd light up real good once the fire got here. Chasing those thoughts away, she made her way forward until she could see her prey. There they were.

Demons, not a species she recognized. Human-sized, maybe a bit larger, black skin, black robes, red eyes. Probably fangs and claws, too. Just a guess, but demons usually had them. There were over two dozen of them, quite a gathering.

"It's here," one of them growled. "Drawn here like a moth to the flame."

The others chuckled as if sharing a private joke.

"Soon it will be in our possession," another growled, sounding quite eager.

Faith had no idea what it' was, but seeing as they were demons, she was quite sure that it would be best if they didn't get it'. The only problem was, there were so many of them. Her self-confidence wasn't what it had been before Kakistos and even if it had, her common sense told her that she was outnumbered.

"What to do," she whispered to herself. "What to do."

Suddenly one of the demons looked up sharply. "It's here!"

For a moment Faith feared that they might have discovered her, but her fears were unfounded. As one the demons looked toward the far wall, anticipation written all over their faces. Faith, too, felt something from that direction. A tingle, yet very much unlike that she felt from these monsters. It felt... purer. What was...

The wall they were all staring at suddenly exploded inward and the red fire truck she had followed to this place came crashing through. Flames were licking along the roof now and the smoke was getting thicker.

"Everybody out," a voice rang out from the fire truck. "This building is no longer safe."

Faith tried to spot the driver inside the truck, but couldn't see him. The truck's windshields were opaque. The demons didn't seem interested in escaping from the fire, though. Instead they moved towards the truck.

"It is here," one of them snarled in satisfaction. "Just as we predicted."

"Didn't you hear me," the truck driver's voice rang out again. "I said... what are you?"

Apparently he had just gotten his first good look at the intended rescuees, because the truck was backing away a bit. Debris from his crash through the wall blocked the way he'd come in, though.

"Take it!" She didn't see which of the demons gave the command, but suddenly all of them surged forward and swarmed the red truck. Faith was about to jump up and save the driver, when the truck exploded into action. Its ladder swung around, swatting several of the demons against the far wall with incredible force. Powerful burst of water exploded from its hoses, taking several more off their feet. The truck performed some kind of crazy turn Faith would never have believed it capable of and its rear rammed into yet more demons, sending them sprawling.

Their numbers were working against the truck, though, and soon several of them were on top of it. One of them sent a fist (with claws, she noted) through the wind shield, shattering it.

Which revealed to Faith that the truck didn't have a driver.

She was still trying to figure that out when the truck screeched forward, trying to throw the demons off.

"I don't know what you are, but this is your last warning. Get off of me!"

The truck was talking, Faith realized. It didn't have a driver, but it talked. How was that possible? She had never heard of any kind of magical fire truck before.

"Okay, you had your warning," the truck stated.

Before Faith's disbelieving eyes the truck began to change. The front portion of it disengaged from the trailer with the ladder and screeched into a tight turn, managing to throw some of its uninvited passengers off. Others still clung to it, but suddenly found their hold evaporating as the vehicle began to shift. Plates rearranged, entire portions of it distorted, the sound of shifting gears and pumping pistons filled the air.

Little more than a second had passed, but a giant robot now stood in place of the fire truck. It was mostly red, with white legs and a blue head. It was at least ten meters tall and unable to stand in the warehouse space, forcing it into a crouched position. Faith was completely speechless.

As she watched the giant robot went to work on the demons, throwing them every which way like gnats. There were a lot of gnats, though, and they were quite persistent. Also, it seemed that the robot was going out of its way not to do too much harm to its assailants. It could have squashed many of them easily, but was content to merely brush them away.

This was its undoing. The demons boxed it in and, despite its vast size, managed to inflict wounds on it. Their claws sheared through its metal skin, not easily, but they did. The robot stumbled, apparently feeling pain from those injuries, and the demons managed to topple it into a pile of debris that had already caught fire.

The robot uttered a cry of pain, as unbelievable as it was, and this caused Faith to spring into action.

Later on she wouldn't be able to say what she had been thinking or even what exactly she had been doing. The entire fight turned into a blur of flames, smoke, and demon bodies. Armed with nothing but a stake and a jack knife she tore into the monsters, killing two of them before they even realized she was there. Some of them turned to deal with her, others were still swarming the robot, apparently trying to rip its chest plate open.

Time lost meaning as she fought, drowning herself in her Slayer instincts. There were demons to kill and she was the Slayer, nothing else mattered. Some of them had already been rendered unconscious by the giant robot, but there were still so many of them. She fought, but they fought back. There was pain, lots of pain, but it didn't register. At least not immediately.

She only realized at some point that the fight was over. Demon bodies littered the ground at her feet. Flames and smoke filled the space around her. And a giant alien robot was kneeling beside her, lots of gashes in its metal hide, but apparently alive (if such a thing could be said about giant robots).

"I thank you for your help," the robot said, "but we should get out of here fast. The flames have engulfed most of the building."

The flames, yes. It was quite hot in here. So hot she could barely breathe. Lots of smoke, too. And this searing pain in her belly. Looking down, she saw that her stomach had been sliced open, blood pouring out freely.

"You are wounded," the robot said, alarm in its voice.

"You don't miss a thing, do you?" she managed to say, then toppled over, darkness closing in around her.

End Chapter 1

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All things Transformers are copyright Hasbro and Takara. All things Buffy are copyright Joss Whedon and people. 


	2. Pilot, p2 of 7

**Author's Note:** The Transformers in this story are loosely based on the Robots in Disguise / Car Robots cartoon, but with some elements from Generation 1 and Energon thrown in for good measure. If you're not into Transformers, don't worry. Most of what you need to know about them is explained in this and the following chapters. And to answer some questions:

_Tammin:_ You asked if Faith was going to become a Head-, Power-, or Targetmaster or something totally new. Without wanting to give too much away, your fourth choice probably comes closest to the truth.

_Mountain King:_ Can't say I read your story, is it still online somewhere? I thought this over for a long time, too, and finally came up with a story outline that I think will work despite the very different universes I'm trying to mesh here. And regarding your qurestions about what the demons were after and who is behind them, well, you'll just have to wait and see.

_Harry2_: You got it a bit wrong, Faith didn't meet Inferno of the G1 Autobots. Read the chapter to find out who exactly she met in that fire.

Thanks for taking the time to review, everyone. Please continue to do so. I've almost forgotten how nice it is to find lots of people taking an interest in my stories. Hope you enjoy chapter 2.

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**Chapter 2: To Save the Brave, Tiny Fleshling**

The robot's name was Arcee and she was very bored. The fact that most of her friends and colleagues on this assignment were equally bored did little to change that state of mind. Yes, this was an important mission. Yes, the fate of the universe might well depend on them. Yes, Optimus Prime himself had selected her as part of his elite team.

She was still so bored that she wanted to rip out her own transistors.

Arcee was a Transformer, a member of a race of cybernetic shape shifters. Humanoid robots in their primary form, they had perfected the art of camouflage by assuming the guise of vehicles, machinery, or even animals to blend in with just about every environment imaginable.

For as long as anyone could remember their race had been divided into two factions: The Autobots, originally created for construction and maintenance, and the Decepticons, machines built for war. Over the eons these two factions had clashed again and again. In the most recent war the Autobots had proven the victors and their home planet of Cybertron was now at peace, what remained of the Decepticons scattered across the universe.

They had recently gathered intelligence, though, that a splinter faction of Decepticons, called Predacons, was on its way to Earth. What exactly they wanted here was unclear, but Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, had decreed that this planet needed to be protected. So he had assembled a team and travelled to Earth. They had assumed the shapes of local vehicles in order to blend in, feeling that the Earth people weren't ready to learn about the existence of alien races yet. So they hid and waited for the Predacons to arrive.

They had been waiting for quite some time now. Arcee was very much tired of it.

"Any news, Ty?" she asked as she strolled into the command centre.

Ty, the main computer of their base, activated its holographic avatar to talk to her. Currently she was using the guise of a human woman. Last week she'd used a Mercedes. The week before that it had been a space shuttle and the week before that a sabre tooth tiger. If there was any pattern to her choice of avatars, Arcee had yet to figure it out.

"Nothing much to report, Arcee," Ty responded. "Optimus reported in about twenty minutes ago, saying he would be late coming in due to a fire on his patrol route, nothing else. Everything is quiet."

Arcee sighed. Granted, Optimus Prime wasn't the kind of leader who sent anyone on a mission he wasn't prepared to undertake himself, be it a heavy fire fight with Decepticon armies or a boring undercover assignment on a primitive backwater planet like Earth. Still, it figured that the big bot was taking some extra time to get at least a little action in, even if was just putting out a fire, while she was stuck here on monitor duty for that extra time.

"Any chance I could convince you to fake an emergency signal so I could get out a bit?" Arcee asked rhetorically. Ty might be more fun-loving than your average artificial intelligence, but she was still programmed to stick to the rules.

"Arcee, dear, if you want some action, you could always go a round in the simulator."

"I'm tired of shooting holographic Decepticons," she answered, quite forcefully. "This was supposed to be a combat mission. Protect the innocent primitives from the bad guys. No one said we'd have to be bored out of our shells for Primus knows how long before they even got here. If Prime would at least allow us to have some fun outside the base, but no. It's either patrol, monitor duty, or battles in the simulator. I'm getting so tired of it, I..."

"Hold that thought, dear," Ty interrupted her, her transparent face looking distracted. "Global space bridge activation detected. Access codes accepted. Optimus Prime identified."

Arcee looked towards the space bridge portal. Utilizing transwarp technology, the Autobots had constructed a series of interconnecting tunnels that circled the globe and allowed them to reach just about every spot on the planet in a matter of seconds. Arcee didn't fully grasp the theory behind it; she only knew that it worked. Which meant that her leader would enter the command centre any moment now and she'd finally be off duty. Not that she had much to occupy her off-duty time, but...

Her thoughts were interrupted once again when Optimus Prime arrived. He was a tall, powerful robot, more than twice as tall as her. Despite his massive bulk, though, he always carried himself with a grace and nobility that robots a third his size couldn't match. Right now, though, he looked far from graceful.

Optimus Prime's shell was covered with scratches and open gashes, his metallic skin ripped open in numerous places. He was bleeding Energon from some of his wounds and his mostly red exterior was almost completely blackened with sooth. Arcee's sensors could still pick up the heat trailing off his shell.

"Wow," she uttered. "Must have been some fire, Optimus."

"No time to talk, Arcee," he thundered. "Ty, activate the med droids! Upload everything we have on human anatomy and hurry!"

Arcee wanted to ask what this was all about, but then she spotted the tiny figure Prime carried in his hands. A human? Why was he bringing a human into their base? She scanned the small figure, realizing that it was female and in the final stages of human childhood. A teenager, her local database supplied. She was also quite seriously hurt.

All Autobots chosen for this mission had uploaded basic information on human anatomy, seeing as it wasn't out of the question that their upcoming battle against the Predacons might cause human casualties. Their mission was to protect this planet, which meant that they would have to be able to take care of wounded humans if necessary. Arcee had scanned the files, but this was the first time she actually saw a wounded human.

Her bio readings were pretty low and she had lost a lot of Energon... no, blood. The humans had blood in their veins. Still, it served pretty much the same purpose as Energon. Lose too much of it and you died.

"Med droids standing by," Ty reported. "If I may ask, though, wouldn't a human hospital be the better place for her?"

"I've analyzed her condition, Ty," Prime responded. "I'm afraid she is beyond human help. She will be dead in minutes unless we do something."

"Granted, our technology is far ahead of the humans, but we haven't exactly got much experience in treating organics, Optimus. I can not guarantee we will be able to help her."

The Autobot leader nodded gravely, handing the tiny body over to the arriving med droids.

"I know that, Ty. But she saved my life, so the least I can do is try my best to save hers in return."

Now Arcee was even more intrigued. This tiny fleshling had saved Prime's life? How could that be possible? The humans were so small and fragile, while Optimus Prime was the greatest warrior Cybertron had ever produced. What could this human, this child, possibly have done to save him?

Arcee quickly followed Optimus toward the med bay.

* * *

The med droids worked on the tiny figure, tools originally intended to weld metal and fix circuitry now adapted to work on organic tissue. Ty had raided every medical database she could find, uploading the sum total of human medical knowledge into her droids. The technology she was working with was centuries ahead of anything humans had even imagined. 

It still didn't look good, though.

"I'm afraid the situation looks grim, Optimus."

The Autobot leader was undergoing repairs of his own, but barely paid any attention to the droids working on him. Serious as some of his wounds were, none of them were fatal or crippling. He would be all right. Transformers were pretty hard to kill.

"Tell me, Ty," he simply said.

"She has lost a lot of blood, the human's equivalent of Energon. I've synthesized blood to replace it and sent Prowl to the nearest hospital to collect some of the authentic stuff just in case. Her internal organs have taken a lot of damage as well, though. I'm trying my best to repair them, but my options are limited. Actually I'm a bit surprised she has lasted this long. Her spark is fading fast."

Arcee was listening in and felt a small chill creeping through her inner systems. She had read up on humans, mostly out of boredom. There was still a lot of discussion in their theologies of whether or not such a thing as sparks - or souls, as they called them - even existed. This had never been an issue for her own race. Transformers knew they had a spark, could pinpoint exactly where in their shell it resided, and knew they would die the moment it was snuffed.

In humans the spark was a lot harder to locate, their bodies not equipped with anything resembling a spark chamber, but Ty's scanners clearly picked up her spark's signature. It was growing weaker by the second.

"Is there nothing we can do?" she asked. Optimus had told her and the other resident Autobots the story of how he had apparently been lured into a trap by some kind of inhuman creatures and how they might very well have killed him if not for this tiny human girl. A child she might be, Arcee thought, but she had displayed courage and decency to do any Autobot proud. A true warrior spirit.

Ty hesitated a moment, an unusual thing to do for an artificial intelligence whose thought processes numbered in the thousands per second.

"I can't repair her body, at least... not without changing it."

"Meaning?"

"Some of her damaged organs need to be replaced. I have considered cloning her organic tissue, but I'm afraid I have a very limited database to work with here. The humans have only just begun cloning experiments and given that our time is very short, it would take much too long for me to come up with any kind of viable solution. The only other way is cybernetic replacements."

Prime looked down, clearly not pleased with the answer.

"That is a tremendous step, Ty. We'd be taking part of her humanity away. I do not like doing this without her consent."

"She won't be able to give it, Optimus. We either act now or she dies. There is no other way."

Optimus looked torn. "How much replacement are we talking about, Ty? How much of her would we have to change?"

"Several internal organs, including her left lung, liver, and parts of the appendix. Also parts of her nervous system. There is some risk involved, though. I have no data on how intermingling between organic and cybernetic tissue might effect a spark that is already fading. The shock of the procedure might kill her."

"If we do nothing she will die, too," Arcee said. "We should do it, Optimus."

The Autobot Commander finally nodded. "Save her, Ty! Anyway you can."

* * *

The procedure took several hours and the crowd of Autobots watching only grew. Prowl returned with blood from the nearest human hospital. X-Brawn and Sideburn had returned from patrol and been brought up to date. Team Bullet-Train was not present, but watching via remote link. Even the Build Team was taking time off from its busy schedule to check on their patient. The small human had already earned a place in each of their sparks through her heroic actions. 

Arcee found herself filled with a very uncharacteristic feeling, at least considering that it was directed at a human. So far humans had been something remote to her. Sure, she had encountered lots and lots of them during patrol, had studied them, had even managed to enjoy some of their television programs. Still, until now they had been nothing but a mission to her. Something that needed to be protected from the bad guys, nothing more. It was her purpose as an Autobot to protect, but that didn't necessarily mean she would ever empathize with her charges.

Somehow this small human had changed her mind about this species. If such a little girl would risk her life to save an alien being that must have been strange and terrifying to her eyes, there had to be something good and special about the humans. And she wanted to know more. She wanted this girl to survive.

The shrill of the bio sign monitor tore her out of her thoughts.

"Ty, what is happening?" Optimus asked.

"What I was afraid of, Optimus. The procedure is too stressful. I'm amazed her spark has lasted this long, but it is going critical. We're losing her."

"There must be something we can do," Arcee pleaded with her.

"There is nothing more I can do. If she were an Autobot, we could fuse her spark to another via the interlink process, thereby keeping it alive until her body was repaired, but..."

"Why can't we do that?"

Ty paused, her holographic image giving Arcee an amazed look.

"Arcee, she is not an Autobot. Or any kind of Cybertronian for that matter. She is an organic. Her spark is completely different from ours. There is no guarantee it is even possible and the risk to both sparks would be..."

"Could it work?" Optimus asked.

Ty paused again. "In theory, maybe. But Optimus..."

"I owe her my life, Ty. If there is the slightest chance I can save her, I will gladly put my spark at risk. Prepare the med droids to..."

"No!"

Everyone was shocked, not least among them Arcee herself as she heard herself uttering these words.

"Arcee, I have no time to argue...," Prime began.

"Optimus, I volunteer for this," Arcee interrupted him again. "Ty said the procedure was risky. You are our leader and the guardian of the Matrix. You can't put yourself at risk like this. Let me do it!"

Optimus looked at her for a long, long moment.

"Arcee, do you realize what you are saying?" he asked.

"Probably not," she answered. "Still, she has saved your life. That puts us all in her depth, for she also saved the Matrix, our sacred life force. I am willing to repay that depth and... I do not want to see her die."

The Autobot Commander considered this and Arcee was half-convinced he was going to tell her she was crazy. Finally, though, he nodded.

"The Matrix moves in mysterious ways," he said. "If you are sure you want to do this, Arcee, then I give my permission."

Arcee nodded, too, and walked towards Ty's med droids.

"Okay, Ty! Let's make this happen before I regain my sanity."

End Chapter 2

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**Author's Note:  
**Arcee is based on Energon Arcee. You can find her on my homepage transformers-universe-com (replace the final - with a . to use the link) in the Energon section.

Most of the other Transformers mentioned are as they appeared in the Robots in Disguise / Car Robots cartoon. If you haven't seen it, check out the Robots in Disguise section on my homepage:

For all Transformers fans reading this who don't know who Faith is or what she looks like, take a look at eliza-dushku-com (again, remove the final - and insert a .)_  
_


	3. Pilot, p3 of 7

**Author's Notes: ** Again, thank you very much for all the reviews. Also, I've recently realized that Ty, the Autobot's main computer, should be spelled T.A.I., but I've chosen to keep on spelling her the same as I did in the earlier chapters. I hope no one crucifies me for that. To answer some points:

_Majin Gojira _: I am well aware that Slayer's have enhanced healing powers. In fact, Faith is talking about them in this very chapter. If you read carefully, you will note that Ty noted in the previous chapter that she was quite surprised that Faith held on for as long as she did. That was my reference to her healing powers. But seeing that the Transformers are still not very familiar with human medicine, I figured it wouldn't strike them as that odd.

_David Knight _: The part about the sparks is indeed inspired by the Beast Wars episodes The Agenda / Optimal Situation, though I'm putting in some twists. And you can bet Arcee will play an important role in Faith's future.

_Mountain King _: I found your story, but I hope you understand that I won't be reading it until I'm finished with mine or at least a good way along. I don't want to influence myself by reading another's take on the same matter. I've put it on my to-read list, though. But boy, you did get some very unfriendly reviews. I hope I don't get some of those for this story.

_Darklight _: As you can see in this chapter, Faith won't exactly be ripping up Autobots upon waking up, but I hope you'll continue reading regardless. As to what the demons were after exactly and what the Transformers might think of them, well, you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out about that one.

_Den Scurman _: Glad to see I could lure even a non-Buffy / G1-fanatic reader into this story. Hope you like where this is going. As for the power levels, I figure a ten meter tall robot can stomp pretty much any individual demon, but swarms of them can take him down, like you said.

_Luis Silva _: I received your corrections to the first part. Thanks for making the effort, but I've found in the past that I do not have the patience required to work with a beta reader and I think (or hope, rather) that my grasp of the English language is good enough not to need one. Some tiny mistakes here and there, yes (depth has been corrected into debt), but I hope it's still readable.

Again, thanks for the reviews. Here is the next chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Brave, Tiny Fleshling and the Feisty Young Bullet Bike **

Darkness. Cold. The pain was gone and she was quite sure that this wasn't a good thing. End of pain meant end of life. It was over. Her run as the Slayer had ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Well, at least she'd managed to save the life of a talking fire truck that became a giant robot. She was pretty sure that no other Slayer could make such a boast.

Suddenly there was a light. Bright, warm, coming closer. Was this the famous light people who had returned from being clinically dead always talked about? The one that called you towards it? The entrance to heaven, if there was such a thing? Well, only one way to find out. She started moving towards it.

There was no tunnel leading up to the light, though. The light just hung there in the dark, a big orb of sparkly radiance. It did seem to call out to her. She went closer and it seemed almost as if the orb was reaching out to embrace her, to take her into arms that promised warmth and safety. She had never been the cuddly king, but went into this embrace willingly. What else could she have done? There was only darkness out there.

She embraced the light, felt its warmth flooding through her very being. It chased the cold away, sent tingles all along her... well, not body. There was no body. Just her. Lighting up just like the sparkly orb. She would have giggled if she'd been able to, even though she wasn't and had never been one to giggle. Death sure changed a person.

Time passed, no telling how much. There was a distant sensation, something at the very edge of her awareness. Echoes maybe. Like another person talking far, far away. A female person, or at least that was what it sounded like to her. The voice wasn't familiar, yet she found it oddly soothing. At least she wasn't all alone here in the dark.

Finally the darkness seemed to lift, bit by little bit. Like the sun slowly reaching across the horizon on a dark winter morning. Man, she really had to be dead if she was thinking thoughts like that. The poetic kind she was not. But hey, if death didn't change you, nothing would.

"Can you hear me?" a strange voice suddenly asked. Not the female one she'd heard echoes of, but one that sounded most definitely male.

Maybe she wasn't dead after all? That would be something.

* * *

Faith slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the painful brightness. She'd been in the dark for so long the light hurt. It was the only pain she felt, though. There was no trace of the sharp agony she'd felt just before passing out, the one coming from the gaping wound in her stomach.

"Can you hear me?"

There was that voice again. Where had she heard that one before? Just before waking up, sure. But before that? Raising her head took some doing, but she finally located the source of the voice above her.

Waaaaaaay above her.

The giant robot that had once been a talking fire truck loomed above her. Now, with plenty of light and no demons in need of killing, she finally had a moment to really take a good look at him. Very tall, yeah. Mostly red, white thighs, blue chest panels, a blue helmet and face mask. Cool eyes, though. They seemed to glow with some sort of inner light.

The tingle was there again, too. The one that seemed almost like a photo negative to the dark vibes she always felt when demons were close. Or make that photo positive then. She probably should be scared shitless with a giant robot towering above her, but for some reason she wasn't. She had learned to trust her instincts, even before they'd been enhanced by her becoming the Slayer, and they told her that this... guy, robot, whatever, was a good guy. Robot. Whatever.

He seemed to be waiting for her to say something, so she finally gathered the energy to do so. "Yeah, I can hear you." Not the most original comment after cheating death, she figured, but what the hell. Her poetic phase had started and ended somewhere near death.

"Good," he answered, his voice surprisingly soft for such a big guy. "My name is Optimus Prime and I want to thank you for saving my life."

Faith managed a soft laugh. "Unless I hit my head on the way down I'd say you returned the favour, big guy. Those demons sliced me up pretty good. Which reminds me..."

She looked down and found that, yes, she was quite naked. No wonder she felt a breeze around her privates. She was lying on a slab of metal that was way too large for her, making her look like a mouse on a kitchen table. Giant robot sized furniture? The metal was surprisingly warm, though. Anyway, nudity didn't bother Faith much, she almost always slept in the buff and she figured that giant robots probably weren't much interested in ogling her. What did bother her a bit, though in a positive way, was the fact that there was no trace of the wound to be found on her belly, not even a scar.

"Wow," she muttered. "Either I've been out a long time or that Slayer healing thing kicked into overdrive."

The big robot, Optimus, seemed puzzled for a moment, but then continued.

"We did our best to help you. I would have taken you to a hospital, but I feared you would not have survived there. Your wounds were quite serious."

Faith just managed to keep herself from jumping when a woman suddenly materialized beside her. A see-through woman.

"I'm glad to say we fixed you up quite nicely," the apparition said. "My name's Ty, by the way."

"Ty, okay," she muttered. Reaching out, she wasn't particularly surprised when her hand went right through the woman. "Are you a ghost or what, Ty?"

"A hologram," Ty answered, smiling. "And may I say you are taking all this surprisingly well... uh..."

"Faith's the name. And I've seen lots of strange stuff recently." Thinking a moment, she added "but not quite this strange."

There was a noise somewhere off to the side, a shifting of metal accompanied by the soft, almost subsonic whirr of machinery. Faith turned her head to look and found that, on a slab beside the one she was laying on, another giant robot was apparently just coming around. Or was that coming online?

This new robot was nowhere near as tall as the talking fire truck guy, Optimus. Maybe half as tall, if that. Its colouring was a mixture of white, black and pink, of all colours. There where tires on its back, so it was a good bet that it was some kind of vehicle as well. All in all this second robot looked a lot sleeker than the big guy and it had something of a female feel to it. And not just because of the pink.

"Did it work?" the new robot asked, its voice very much female. And familiar to Faith. Where had she heard that voice before? There were only the slightest traces of memory remaining from the time she'd spent hovering close to death. Had she heard that voice then?

"The operation was a success," Ty announced happily. "You are both in good health."

"Both?" Faith asked, looking at the other robot, Arcee. "You got busted up, too, or what?"

Optimus leaned down to bring his head closer to both her and Arcee. "As I said, you were badly injured when we brought you in. You would probably have died during surgery, but Arcee here volunteered to interlink her spark with yours. It kept you alive long enough for Ty to complete your repairs."

Now Faith was very confused. "Spark? Interlinking? Repairs? What the hell are you all talking about?"

Arcee slid off the slab, standing up beside her.

"I think we need to fill her in on a few things, Optimus."

The big guy nodded. "Indeed we do."

* * *

This place was freakin' amazing, Faith thought. Everything was so big and shiny and... high-tech. Giant robot wonderland. Optimus, whom she still thought of as talking fire truck guy, and Arcee, whom she hadn't found a good nickname for yet, took her to out of the infirmary (or repair bay, rather) and toward a nearby conference room. Nearby in giant robot terms, that was. It was quite a march for her, but she refused to be carried. She had some dignity left, even after waking up nude, surrounded by giant robots.

Ty, the hologram girl, had supplied her with some clothing. Not very stylish, basically just a white zip-up overall, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Her original clothes were a mess of blood, dirt, and sooth, not to mention quite ripped thanks to demon claws and teeth. So for the moment white overalls it was.

She caught a brief glimpse of even more giant robots, not one of them looking like the other, all sporting various vehicle parts on their bodies. How many of these things were there? Despite the fuzzy feelings she got from them, especially from talking fire truck guy, she was starting to get a bit worried. Giant robots hiding as cars? Maybe she'd seen to many bad sci-fi flicks, but this was starting to sound sinister.

The conference room was nothing unusual, just very much off-scale to her eyes. Arcee bent down to offer her a lift to the top of the table, but she quickly gauged the height and decided to show off a little. From a standing position she leapt onto the three meter tall table surface. Arcee and fire truck guy gave her amazed looks.

"I didn't know humans could jump like that," Arcee said.

"Most can't," Faith simply said, squatting down. "But we were going to chat about you guys, so spill! What's the stitch?"

They apparently needed a moment to make sense of her slang words, but managed. Optimus and Arcee sat down in chairs adapted to their respective heights and the hologram of Ty appeared on the table beside her. There were no others present, something Faith was thankful for. Two giant robots and one holographic woman were quite enough to take all at the same time.

"Faith," Optimus began, "when I brought you in, you were near death. I judged that a human hospital would not be able to help you, so I brought you to our base. As you might guess, our technology is quite a bit more advanced."

"Yeah, I can guess. Who are you guys anyway? Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you're from around these parts, right?"

Optimus shook his head. "No, we're not. In your terms, we are aliens. We have come to Earth from another planet."

Faith simply nodded. Okay, the idea of aliens was astounding, but no more so than the idea of demons from hell dimensions and such. The big question on her mind was a different one. According to her Watchers all demons were evil and needed to be killed, a motto she'd found no reason to dispute so far. She hadn't met any friendly demons so far. But what about aliens? These guys didn't feel evil, but neither did some of the smarter vamps, who managed to blend in really well. And blending in seemed to be something these guys were really, really good at.

"Why come to Earth?" she asked, kinda hoping that the answer was not along the lines of resistance is futile' or death to all humans'.

"That's a long story and...," Optimus began.

"We heard some bad guys were coming here and we want to stop them," Arcee supplied.

"Or maybe not that long," the big guy finished, giving Arcee a glare. The other robot seemed to take it in stride.

"So you're what? Some kind of intergalactic police officers?"

"Not really, no. It just so happens that these bad guys... well, you could say we are related somewhat. So we consider them our responsibility."

Faith got images of bad alien robots stomping all over Earth and shivered a bit. At least all the demons she'd encountered so far had had the decency to be more or less man-sized. She was the Slayer, yes, but how was she supposed to fight baddies that were ten meters tall and armoured to boot?

"The bad guys aren't here yet," Arcee told her. "So we're bidding our time until they arrive and try to make sure that you humans notice as little of our presence as possible."

"Oh," Faith turned to look at Optimus. "So I guess our little encounter puts a dent in your plan?"

The big guy nodded. "I have some questions of my own regarding our... encounter, as you called it. Especially regarding these creatures that attacked me. You seemed to be familiar with them?"

"Not with those guys in particular, but guys like them. I guess you could say they are our version of the bad guys. Really bad. And to avoid another potentially long story, it's my responsibility to take care of them. So I guess we're in the same line of work, kind of."

Optimus considered this. "I would like to know more about this, but I think some other things are more important to you right now. Ty?"

The hologram woman looked at her.

"There is something you need to know, Faith. When you came here you were hanging on by a thread. In order to save you we had to make some... modifications."

"Modifications?" Faith asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach. She resisted the urge to check whether all of her arms and legs were still flesh and blood instead of funky machine parts.

"Yes. I don't want to gross you out with details, but... we had to replace some of your inner organs and parts of your nervous system. You are, well, part cybernetic now."

Faith gulped, not quite believing what she was hearing. They had done what to her? Ty apparently sensed her slowly rising panic, for she quickly continued. A second hologram appeared beside her, looking like a really detailed, three-dimensional X-Ray image.

"It's nothing that you're going to see from the outside, Faith. Just some of your inner workings. I promise you; unless you get yourself cut open again you will never notice any difference. Except maybe that your lungs are working a bit better now and you will probably never again have any sort of digestion problems."

Her smile was encouraging and managed to dispel some of Faith's anxiety, but the thought of machine parts inside of her... she studied the X-Ray image. Anatomy was definitely not her strong point apart from where to strike so as to ensure quick death. She only knew the things she had seen on TV in some hospital serial or other. Okay, the lungs weren't that hard to spot. One of them was... looking different. So did some of the things in her lower body, but she'd be damned if she could say which organs they were.

"This is wicked strange," she muttered when suddenly another thought occurred to her. She had never before even considered the notion, but seeing as these robots seemed to have replaced half the organs in her body...

"What about... I mean... it's not like I ever planned to have kids, but..."

"Oh, your reproductive organs are intact, Faith. No damage there."

Letting out a breath she hadn't known she held, Faith relaxed. Okay, this probably shouldn't have bothered her, seeing as she certainly didn't intend to have children, considering her own childhood. Still, the thought of never even having the choice... okay, no longer an issue.

"Okay, great. So... everything should be as it was? These machine parts of yours, do they need maintenance or anything? Regular oil changes?"

Ty laughed. "No, nothing of the sort. Cybertronian parts are built to last, Faith. A single human lifespan won't even get you past the warranty."

Faith's face fell. Okay, Ty couldn't know this, of course, but being a Slayer, she didn't have that long a life to look forward to anyway. Slayers seldom lived past their twentieth birthday. Thinking about Kakistos for the first time since waking up, she wondered if she'd even make it that long. Damn, way to bring down the mood.

"Did I say something wrong?" Ty asked, concerned.

"No, nothing. Just some bad thoughts. So...," she looked at talking fire truck guy, who was obviously the boss around here, "what now?"

Optimus, not oblivious to her mood change, apparently saw the need for a break.

"I would like to talk further with you, Faith, but I think we could all use a break. Would you like Arcee to give you a tour of the base?"

For a moment Faith considered whether or not she was being held prisoner here, but then chased the thought away. Big as this place was, she had no doubt that someone as comparatively small as she could easily slip away if she wanted to. Besides, she was curious as hell and whether or not these big robots turned out to be bad guys, it certainly wouldn't hurt to know more about them.

Besides, a small, scared voice inside her added, it was highly doubtful Kakistos would find her here.

"Good idea. How about it, Arcee?" she asked, jumping down from the table with ease.

"No problem. Care for a ride?"

Without waiting for an answer Arcee suddenly changed. Man, this was every bit as weird the second time around as the first time. It all happened so fast Faith didn't quite catch every detail of it, but suddenly a sleek Japanese bullet bike stood in place of Arcee. It had the same colouring as the giant robot girl, but apart from that it looked completely authentic, right down to the leather upholstery.

"Cool," she said, the thought of riding this beauty making her mouth water. She quickly climbed onto it. Now where was the ignition on this thing?

"Hold on tight!" A moment later the bike accelerated by itself and took her speeding down the corridor. Faith let out a surprised yell.

* * *

"Have you done a second scan?" Optimus asked Ty once Arcee and Faith had disappeared.

"Yes," the computer answered. "It confirmed the first reading. I'm not sure how it's possible, but their sparks have aligned."

Optimus nodded, deeply worried about what this might mean.

"It might account for her rapid healing and the way she jumped that table," Ty proposed. "Though I'm not sure. She didn't seem surprised by those."

"Has something like this ever happened before?" Optimus asked after a while.

"I've searched our entire database. There are some obscure references to a lost splinter group of Autobots and an alien race called Nebulons, but nothing concrete. As far as I can tell, this is completely unprecedented."

Optimus nodded once more, one hand unit absentmindedly brushing over his chest plate. Beneath it the Matrix was lying quiet, yet Prime couldn't quite shake the impression that it was giving off an almost tangible air of smugness.

End Chapter 3


	4. Pilot, p4 of 7

**Author's Notes **: Once again, thank you for the many, many reviews I've gotten so far. And to answer some points:

_ShadowHawk _: No, I didn't get your email. The profile of your character is very interesting, but I won't be putting him into my story. The premise is that whatever is happening with Faith and Arcee is something unique and unprecedented, so putting in another human-Autobot combo would kind of destroy that premise. Hope you understand.

_Gregdoreza _: No, Faith was not riding Arcee in the buff, sorry. She put on a white overall just after waking up, as mentioned in the previous chapter. But thanks for putting that picture in my head ;-). Anyway, an encounter with Kakistos is definitely in the plans, but might take a while yet.

_SFBKludge _: We're on the same page, I think. I love crossovers, but not those who are just character from series A meeting character from series B and falling in love / fighting / joining forces / whatever just for the crossover's sake.

_Majin Gojira _: Glad I could turn you around a bit. As for fringe benefits', there will be some, though the word benefit might be the wrong one and it'll have little to do with Faith's cybernetic organs.

_Den Scurman _: I can already say at this point that there will be no team-up between Megatron and Kakistos. These two are just too different, I guess, and operate on completely different scales. Besides, to all those who might be waiting for it, the arrival of the Predacons will take some more time yet. Oh, and I will check out your crossover story soon, Den.

_Harry2 _: I haven't decided yet whether or not to include Sunnydale in this story, but it certainly won't play a role until the current crisis is dealt with. And you can bet the relationship between Arcee and Faith is going to be interesting.

Again, thank you for taking an interest in this story. And here is the next chapter for your enjoyment.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Guests in Giant Robot Wonderland **

Well, one thing was for certain, Arcee mused. Faith sure liked to drive fast. For the past ten Earth minutes they had sped through the long, endless tunnels of Autobase Earth and the human girl seemed to take great delight in it, urging Arcee to go faster and faster.

"I always loved motorbikes," Faith said between yells of joy, "but you gotta be the hottest I ever saw. Yahooooooo!"

They took a sharp corner and almost collided with Prowl, but Arcee swerved past him and around the next corner before the other Autobot could chide her about reckless driving. Prowl was a great soldier, but also a stickler to the rules. Small wonder he'd taken a human police cruiser as his alternate mode, it really suited his personality just fine.

Well, Arcee didn't much care right now. She'd never have thought so, but driving with a human was even more fun than letting loose all by her lonesome, even if it was just inside the base instead of on an open highway somewhere. When driving outside she always activated a hologram to simulate a rider (she sometimes used Dennis Hopper just for kicks), otherwise the humans might get suspicious, but the real deal felt a lot more... natural, somehow.

"You want to take over for a moment?" she asked, following an impulse.

"You let a stranger ride you and then ask her to take over?" Faith asked, laughing. "Man, Arcee, you're lucky I don't swing that way or I might get some interesting ideas here."

Arcee had absolutely no idea what Faith was talking about. "What?"

"Forget it. Yeah, I'd love to drive, but... well, I don't really know how. I've driven cars before, but on cycles I've always been a passenger so far."

"It's easy. Just take over the steering, I'll handle the rest."

Faith complied and Arcee activated her manual controls, allowing the human to take over the steering. Something else she never thought she'd ever allow a human to do but for some reason she couldn't quite explain she not only seriously liked this girl... she trusted her. That was strange, because Arcee wasn't the kind to trust quickly.

After some minutes of driving along the steel corridors - and two more near-collisions with other Autobots - Faith asked her to slow down and jumped off before Arcee even came to a stop. The human girl did a double summersault in midair and came to a perfect stand. Arcee transformed, coming to a stop beside her.

"I've seen some human sports programs," the Autobot said, "but even your Olympic athletes seem hard-pressed to do stunts like that. How are you doing it?"

"Yeah," Faith simply said, brushing imaginary dust off her white overalls. "You remember how I said I was responsible for taking care of bad guys? Well, you could say I got something of a major tune-up so I could do it better."

Arcee sensed that there was a lot the human girl wasn't saying. "You're not in law enforcement, are you?"

"Fuck, no! You'd never get me to pick up a badge. It's more like an undercover gig. Sort of what you guys are doing. The average human is no more aware of the stuff I do than they know of alien robots hiding out as cars and motorcycles."

"Stuff like those creatures that attacked Optimus?"

"Demons we call'em, yeah. Nasty creatures. I'm doing the world a favour by putting them down, believe me."

Arcee was a bit taken aback by the finality of Faith's words. Autobots had a strict code regarding the taking of life. It was to be a measure of last resort when all other options had failed and that applied even to battles with the Decepticons.

Faith leaned against the wall, a thoughtful look on her face. "Come to think of it, why were the critters after fire truck guy? Most demons are cowards; they go after the weakest prey they can find. That doesn't really apply to your boss."

For a moment Arcee considered mentioning Optimus' theory that the monsters had been after the Matrix, the Autobots' sacred life force. She decided against it, though. No matter how much she might find herself liking the young human, she was still a stranger of whom they knew very little. Having saved Prime entitled her to a lot, but not complete trust. Not yet, anyway.

"I think it's been on Optimus' mind a lot, too," Arcee said instead. "It's a bet he'll want to know more about these demon creatures before you leave."

Faith looked up at her. "You're just going to let me leave?"

Now Arcee was confused. "Of course. What did you think, we're gonna keep you prisoner? We're not like the aliens in those cheap movies of yours, you know?"

"Sorry, too much television, I guess."

"We're just going to ask you not do disclose our presence here on Earth to anyone, that's all."

Faith snorted. "As if anyone would believe me. Besides, I'm good at keeping secrets. The whole demon stuff would scare the crap out of most people just as much as giant alien robots. Your secret's safe with me."

"Okay," Arcee said, deciding to leave the matter in Prime's hands for the time being. She highly doubted he and Ty were taking a break right now. No doubt they were busy researching their guest.

"Let's go another round, shall we?"

* * *

Back in Autobase's repair bay, the med droids were disposing of the remains of the latest repair work. Among those remains were the blood-soaked clothes of their human guest, as well as several plates of armour taken off Optimus Prime. Demon claws had sliced through the steel, making it necessary to replace it. Also, some of the damaged armour was downright filthy. Sooth, ashes, splashes of demon blood.

The droids were simply machines, non-sentient and just following pre-programmed procedures. Ty, who was responsible for controlling them during more complex work, was occupied with other things. So the med droids paid absolutely no heed to the fact that the splatters of demon blood on Optimus Prime's discarded armour plates and Faith's dirty clothes started to sparkle with an unearthly radiance.

* * *

"Her full name is Faith Winters," Ty said. "Born in Boston, United States of America. She's just turned sixteen. Father unknown, mother Rose Winters. She's been arrested several times for shoplifting and some other assorted minor crimes. The last time was about five months ago, when she was arrested for indecent exposure. Apparently she flashed some church group, though the church people themselves refused to press charges. Said something along the lines of her being their saviour from evil or something."

"Strange," Optimus muttered, studying the data scrolling across Ty's holo display. "Or maybe not, considering how she and I met."

"Bail was posted by one Clarice Chapel, native of London, England. No indication what kind of relationship she has to Faith. That's the last entry I found on her." Ty looked at Optimus. "It appears your saviour is a juvenile criminal."

"This data doesn't tell me much other than that she's had a hard life so far," Prime replied. "I'm much more interested in those creatures she saved me from. You have found nothing on them?"

"Nothing except that they resemble some form of fairy tale monsters or other. Not much to go on, I'm afraid."

Optimus brushed his hand across his chest plate again. "They were after the Matrix, Ty, I know it. I could feel it. The question is why. How would any native creatures even know of the Matrix, much less that I am its guardian?"

"Not enough data, Optimus. Maybe Faith can give us an answer."

Optimus looked at the other holo display Ty had brought up. "We also need to tell her and Arcee about this. We can't leave them in the dark."

"Agreed, but we can't really tell them much, can we? We don't know what a spark alignment means if one of the involved parties is not a Cybertronian. And I have my suspicions that Faith is not exactly your average human."

"She certainly isn't. These creatures that attacked me were much stronger and more vicious than any creature we've yet encountered on this world. Faith took them down quickly and expertly. Only their numbers caused her injuries."

Prime thought for another moment and then opened his com link. "Arcee? This is Optimus. Please be so kind and bring out guest back here."

* * *

Faith might be young and her education left something to be desired, but growing up in the worst part of Boston had given her a kind of experience people many times her age often couldn't match. She understood exactly why talking fire truck guy had called for a break and asked Arcee to give her the tour. No doubt they'd used the time to find out whatever they could about her.

When Arcee and she returned to the conference room she kind of expected Optimus to give her the kind of look people gave her when they found out about her background. The kind of stare that said you're nothing but trash' or juvenile criminal, disgusting'. To her surprise, though, his gaze was as soft and compassionate as before. As far as she could tell, that was. It was hard to read a metallic face half-hidden by a mouth guard.

Leaping on top of the table again, she squatted down and looked at the big guy.

"Round two?" she asked, smirking.

"Yes. Faith, I'm sure you have places you'd rather be right now, so I'm trying to make this as short as I can."

"Oh, don't rush on my account. I'm always ready to make a detour when it comes to saving big giant robots. By the way... where are we exactly anyway? Or is that top secret?"

Ty shrugged. "Not really. Even if you knew exactly where our base was, you wouldn't be able to get in unless in the company of an Autobot. To answer your question, our main base is located beneath Tokyo."

Faith's eyes widened. "Tokyo? Like the one in Japan?" She turned an angry glare at Optimus. "Not enough time to get me to a hospital, but enough to take me halfway around the world? Are you shitting me?"

"We are underneath Tokyo in Japan, yes, but believe me, taking you here took a lot less time than taking you to any other spot in the world. Autobase is the hub of our spacebridge network."

"What?" Faith was utterly clueless.

"A series of ultimate shortcuts," Ty supplied. "Without getting to technical, we're folding space to reduce the distance between here and just about any given spot in the world to zero. Optimus had you here about three seconds after you passed out."

Faith wasn't quite sure whether she believed any of this, but it was not like she was a scientist, either. So for the moment she just nodded, accepting the answer.

"Okay," Optimus continued. "I would like to broach two more topics, Faith, and then we're done. One, these creatures that attacked me. I would very much like to know whatever you can tell me about them. They seemed to be after me specifically and I would like to know how they even knew about me and what they were after."

Having expected that question, Faith could only shrug.

"I'm not sure what to tell you, big guy. As I said, I don't know that particular species of demons." She got sombre for a moment. "I wish Clarice was here, I bet she woulda known."

"Clarice?" Arcee asked, noticing the sorrow in Faith's voice.

"Yeah, she was my Watcher. Kind of like... a bit like Ty here, I guess. I do the grunt work, she had the brains and knowledge. Knew more about demons than I would ever want to. Only she..."

She trailed off. The Autobots apparently got the drift of what she was saying and didn't pursue the matter further.

"I'm sorry I brought it up, Faith," Optimus said, "but we really need more information on these creatures. If there are more of them out there..."

"Oh, much more," Faith interrupted him. "You're worried they'll try again? You're probably right. These suckers don't know when to quit, that much I know. Demons in general don't. And they usually don't care about collateral damage, either. But again, I'm afraid my knowledge of all things demons and magic is still pretty limited."

"Magic?" Arcee asked. "I saw a magician on your TV once, but..."

"I'm not talking about those, they're all just show. Real magic is... I don't really know what it is. Pretty much anything that can't be explained or whatever. I mean, there is no way someone like little me should be able to do the things I can, but I can. You catch my drift?"

The two robots and one hologram looked at her. "No, not really," Ty finally said.

"Look, I'm really the wrong gal to ask all this stuff. I know just enough about demons and stuff to know'em when I see'em. That's pretty much it. I... well, I haven't exactly been in this business a long time. I haven't even finished reading the handbook yet."

"There is a handbook?"

Faith was getting a bit frustrated trying to explain all this stuff she herself didn't fully understand to a bunch of alien robots. Oh, they were nice and all, but it was getting more and more apparent that they operated in a world very much different from hers. It was like... like them trying to explain that spacebridge thing to her.

"Okay, it's like this," she gave it one last shot. "I've been given a kind of... radar. A sense for these creatures. I can pick them out of a crowd most of the time, even when they look perfectly human. I have a kind of sixth sense for danger of the demonic kind, too. I don't know how it works, only that it does."

Thinking, she added, "I can also sense some... other things. I mean, you guys, for example."

"What do you mean?" Optimus asked, intrigued.

"You show up on my radar, too. Back in that town, when you first drove past me as a fire truck, I knew there was something... off about you. Not in the bad, wicked evil sense, but I knew you weren't your average fire truck, either."

"Interesting," Ty said. "Is it possible that she is somehow picking up spark emissions?"

"Spark?" Faith asked. "You mentioned that before. What is a spark?"

"You humans call it your soul," Optimus supplied. "But unlike you, we know exactly that we have one and where it is."

"It's what separates us from mere machines," Arcee added. "It's our life force, if you will."

"Aha," Faith just said. Metaphysics and soul searching had never been her forte.

"Which brings us to the other topic I wanted to discuss with you," Optimus said. Looking over at Arcee, he added "with both of you, actually."

"Both of us?" Arcee asked

"Yes. Faith, when you were undergoing repairs..."

"Could you not call it that?" Faith asked. "Sorry, but it kinda makes me feel like a used car."

"Sorry. When you were in surgery, we were losing you. Now, when one of our kind undergoes this kind of invasive rep... operation, one of the last-ditch measures we apply to preserve their sparks involves using the interlink procedure to temporarily fuse it with the spark of another. It's not without risk, but the fused spark endures when a single spark would surely perish. After surgery is finished, the fusion is severed and the spark returns to its own body, none the worse for wear."

Optimus looked at Arcee. "Arcee volunteered to fuse her spark with yours to preserve your life until surgery was finished."

Faith turned towards her. "You did that? But... why? It sounds dangerous and... you didn't even know me."

Arcee shrugged, giving off an air as if she'd like to blush. "We are Autobots. It's our purpose to maintain and protect. Besides, you saved Optimus. That put us all in your debt."

Shaking her head, Faith tried to wrap her mind around that. A giant alien robot had... what, fused her soul with hers to help her survive? Risked her own life, possibly? Why? Why would anyone risk anything for the likes of her? It was her job to risk her life for others, not the other way around. No one had ever risked anything for her.

"What you must understand, Faith," Ty continued, interrupting her thoughts, "is that a spark fusion between a Cybertronian and a human has never been attempted before. We weren't even sure it could be done, but it worked. You survived and your spark returned to your body afterwards. Everything seemed to be in order."

"Seemed?" Arcee asked. Obviously this was news to her, too, Faith thought.

"Yes. We took a reading of your spark signatures directly after surgery and another just ten minutes ago to be sure. The results were the same. It seems that... your sparks have aligned. We don't know how that's possible, but it happened."

Arcee looked dumbfounded, while Faith was just confused. "Aligned? What do you mean, aligned? What does that mean?"

Ty opened her mouth to explain, but before she could alert sirens suddenly started shrieking through the base. Ty's hologram faded.

"Intruder alert," her voice suddenly came over the speakers. "Intruder alert! Unidentified organic beings detected in repair bay."

Organic beings? Faith suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

"I thought you said no one but an Autobot could enter this place."

Arcee and Optimus were already on their feet. "That's true. I don't know how anyone else could..."

A tingle suddenly went down Faith's spine, a dark vibe she had no trouble identifying. Whatever it was that had suddenly appeared here, it set off her Slayer senses.

"Demons," she spat and took off at a run.

End Chapter 4


	5. Pilot, p5 of 7

**Author's Note **: I'm finally approaching my well-deserved holiday, but that probably means the chapters will come a little slower. The strange thing is, I write best when I'm frustrated at work. Not sure why. Anyway, this story will have seven chapters plus an epilogue. You might imagine this as the pilot episode to a possible series. Not sure yet how long this is going to be, it will largely depend on the feedback I'm getting. And speaking of feedback:

_David Knight _: The attackers will be unveiled in this very chapter, so you won't be kept in suspense that much longer. And I think Arcee and Faith will be interesting, due to their very different personalities. Arcee, soft and gentle when she wants to be, but a warrior at heart, and Faith, tough and sassy on the outside, yet still a child inside. It has possibilities.

_Den Scurman _: Sorry, but you were only the second to review this chapter. Better luck next time (and I hope you will keep reviewing my story). On powering-up Faith, I thought about it, but saw no real way to make it happen sensibly. Why should the Autobots make Faith stronger when they don't even know her yet? The spark alignment might yet bring some beneficial side effects, but then again, maybe not, as you might see in this very chapter.

_Harry2 _: Are you sure the Watchers even have a database? These old-fashioned Englishmen who dress like it's still the 19 th century and love the smell of books in the morning? Well, the matter of the Watchers will come up, but first there are some demons to take care of.

_Majin Gojira _: I've seen a dozen and more different last names for Faith and unless I'm very much mistaken it was never stated during the series. So Joss can say whatever he likes, but I won't consider it canon. Anyway, it'll probably never come up again, seeing as Faith doesn't like her last name.

_ShadowHawk _: I'm sorry you feel that way, but if you only read stories where the authors are going to put in some character of yours, I'm afraid your reading material is going to be quite sparse.

_Lennox RH _: You don't have to worry about Faith becoming god-like or being too PC. While I will try and keep the swear words down somewhat for the rating, she's not going to be soft-spoken, either. Or as dumb as the Autobots' usual kid sidekicks. Anyway, their being based in Tokyo is more Robots in Disguise than G2, actually.

And now, back to the show!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Giant Robots From Outer Space vs. Bastardly Demons From Hell **

Had Faith's Watcher Clarice Chapel been alive, she could have told her Slayer some very interesting details about the demons she had fought during her encounter with Optimus Prime. Such as the name of their kind, which was the Sidri. She could also have told her that they were a rather special breed of demons. While not among the strongest or toughest, they were quite numerous and had some very special talents, which enabled them to track their targets to just about anywhere. Most of them were bounty hunters, employed by dark magicians and greater demons to track and capture valuable and very elusive prey.

Autobase, the vast underground complex that served as headquarters for the Earthbound Autobots, was well hidden from any and all sorts of electronic detection. Unfortunately the Autobots knew nothing of magic. Such as the magic that bound all Sidri by blood. Magic that allowed their kind to sense each other across vast distances. Magic that allowed them to open gateways to every place where even a single drop of Sidri blood had been spilled.

Such as the repair bay of Autobase, where Sidri blood splatters on discarded armour plates from Optimus Prime's body and Faith's clothes were still awaiting disposal by the med droids. Said med droids would never finish their work, for they were the first victims of the Sidri when a horde of them invaded Autobase in search of their prey.

* * *

The first Autobot to reach the scene was Prowl. A no-nonsense Autobot and professional to the core, Prowl spent his spare time patrolling the corridors of Autobase, figuring that there was no such thing as a burglar-proof base and even the best security systems could be beaten. He had not expected them to be beaten quite this way, though.

Looking into the repair bay, he saw a blood-red portal glimmering in mid-air, surrounded by the remains of some unfortunate med droids. He also saw that quite a few unidentified creatures had already entered the bay. Creatures that very much resembled Optimus Prime's description of his attackers earlier today.

Prowl was a strategist to the core and immediately directed his attention to the portal. It was the invaders' way in, evident by the fact that more of them were coming through as he watched. Priority one had to be closing this portal. He tried to analyze it, figuring it to be some sort of space bridge variant, but his scanners refused to lock into the energy signature. Whatever powered that gateway, it was beyond the scope of his senses. Simply firing into it could be very dangerous, seeing as he couldn't understand its nature.

Well, if closing the portal was not possible right at this moment, then containment was the next-best option. Prowl charged his weapons and fired on the repair bay entrance, bringing down part of the roof and fusing the doors. The creatures immediately charged forward and started hacking away at his makeshift barrier with surprising strength and ferociousness. Prowl estimated it would not hold more than a few Earth minutes.

"Prowl to all Autobots," he spoke into his comlink. "I could use some assistance here."

* * *

Arcee actually had to strain a bit to catch up to the young human, who was running down the corridor at a speed that she would have thought beyond human capability. That tune-up Faith had mentioned? Well, whoever had done it seemed to have been quite good at his job.

Optimus Prime's heavy steps shook the floor directly behind them, the Autobot commander speaking into his com link.

"Somebody give me a report," he thundered.

"Prowl here, sir. I've engaged the invaders. They have opened some kind of gateway in the repair bay, analysis impossible at the moment. At this moment there are about thirty of the creatures inside Autobase, more arriving as we speak. I've managed to contain them in the repair bay for the moment, but I'm afraid that won't last long."

Faith looked up at Optimus.

"Tell your people not to hold back, okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw how you fought these things the first time around, fire truck guy. You tried to avoid killing or severely hurting them. Don't! You will get no mercy from them and they won't stop until they or we are dead. Killing them is the only option."

"That is not the Autobot way, Faith," Arcee told her.

"Oh yeah? Well, it's the Slayer way, and seeing as you're on my planet and dealing with my bad guys, maybe you should follow my fucking lead!"

"I am sorry, Faith," Optimus said, "but that is not acceptable. We don't kill unless we absolutely have to. All sentient beings have a right..."

"Spare me the crap, okay? If you won't do what's necessary, then I'll do it by myself."

With that she increased her running speed even further. Optimus and Arcee would still have been able to keep up with her due to their much longer limbs, but allowed her to draw ahead for the moment.

"What if she's right, Optimus?" Arcee asked in a low tone.

"We'll handle that if it comes to it, Arcee, but killing must never be the first option! Never!"

Arcee nodded, then transformed into her vehicle mode to reach the scene of battle faster. Behind her Optimus did likewise.

* * *

That just figured, Faith thought. Here she was, surrounded by mega-powerful alien robots who could stomp just about every demon she'd ever heard of without even straining, and they were fucking pacifists. Someone up there really hated her, it was the only explanation she could think of.

She spat out a curse as Arcee and Prime thundered past her in their vehicle forms. She was fast, but not speeding-car-fast. Following an impulse she leapt into the air and managed to get a grip on the tail end of Optimus' trailer. If she couldn't get there before them, she'd at least arrive with them.

A momentary wave of fear overcame her. What if it was Kakistos? What if he'd found her even here and was looking to do to her what he did to Clarice? Her hands shook with panic, but she managed to get it back under control. This wasn't Kakistos. It couldn't be. Odds were it was those demons that had attacked fire truck guy before. She could handle those. Wherever Kakistos was, it wasn't here. No way.

It occurred to her then that she didn't have any sort of weapon handy.

"Ten ways to improvise beheading weapons," she muttered to herself, looking around for anything that might be of use. She doubted that any of these robots carried swords or knives and even if they did, they'd probably be way too large for her to use.

Optimus screeched to a stop and Faith jumped off as he transformed. A welcome sight was before her. Well, not welcome entirely, but given the circumstances it was good. The huge doors to the repair bay were splintered and several metal shards were lying around. She picked one up, gauging its shape and weight. Not exactly a sword, but it had a sharp edge to it. It would have to do.

Taking in the situation, she saw that the inside of the repair bay was swarming with demons. At least several dozen, most of them grouped before a glowing, blood-red portal. Her Watcher had told her that some demons could open portals like that, but she'd never seen one before. Figured that she'd run into a species that could. And yes, they were the same ones she'd faced when rescuing Optimus. Which meant they were probably after the big guy again.

Besides Arcee and Optimus three other robots were present. Arcee had given her a one-sentence brief on the one called Prowl, who seemed to be all-business and capable, but boring as hell. She didn't know the other two, but from the looks of them they both became cars, too.

"Situation," Optimus thundered, a huge gun suddenly in his hand. Where had he gotten that from?

"Hostiles are still confined to the repair bay, Prime," Prowl said, busy holding the buckling doors closed as best as he could. "Their strength is considerable, though, and there are many of them. They will probably break through soon."

"What are these things?" one of the others asked. He was just as tall as Prowl, a little smaller than Optimus, and mostly blue. He was also almost constantly in motion, as if he had a hard time standing still.

"They are the same creatures that attacked me earlier today," Optimus said.

"Demons," Faith added. "Strong, tough, but not particularly invulnerable or anything. Chop off their heads, they die. Simple."

The other Autobots seemed just as shocked by her words as Optimus and Arcee had been earlier. Faith was not in the mood to listen to another speech about the wrongness of killing, though. She quickly slipped right through Prowl's legs (didn't even have to duck) and made for the biggest of the many holes the demons had already torn into the metal doors.

"Faith, wait," Arcee yelled behind her, but Faith didn't listen anymore. The Slayer was burning in her veins, urging her onward. There were demons to slay. The growling of her prey was filling the air, their claws were slashing at the obstacle in their way. They'd be past the door in minutes, maybe just seconds. Faith decided to trim the odds a little.

The largest gash in the doors was still a bit too narrow for the demons, but big enough for her. One of the creatures was trying to wedge itself through as she approached. Big mistake, she mused.

It spotted her just as she jammed her makeshift sword right into its belly. It roared in pain and she added to it by twisting the metal shard as best she could without cutting open her own palms. Blood splattered on her face and her white overall. The creature gurgled and then died, the crimson gleam in its eyes fading. There seemed to be shocked silence from the Autobots behind her, but she didn't much care.

Putting a boot on the dead creature, she shoved it back into the repair bay, opening up the gash again. Glaring through at the nearest of the creatures, she gave it a smirk.

"All right, boys! Come and get me!"

"Slayer," one of them hissed.

"Oh, good. It's always nice to be recognized. So come on, who's next!"

* * *

Arcee was shocked by the casualness with which Faith dispensed death to the creature. They were obviously sentient, they spoke, but she put them down as if they were nothing but beasts. No, worse then beasts, vermin. It reminded her of a Decepticon.

Moments later, though, the demons surged forward and rammed against the repair bay door with such combined force that Prowl had to take a step back. More gashes burst open and the first of them managed to get past the doors. Optimus was the first to react, firing a laser burst onto the floor in front of them.

"Not another step," he ordered.

The creatures paused but momentarily, then continued their advance. Faith was busy killing another of them, but there were too many for her to stop alone. Arcee quickly aimed her own weapon, set low so as not to incinerate them where they stood, and fired. A bright energy bolt speared right through the shoulder of one of the invaders. It howled in pain.

"You heard the boss, stay back," she yelled.

Again the creatures paid them no heed. Even the wounded one surged forward again, apparently not interested in anything but battle.

"Quit fooling around," Faith yelled at her, twisting the neck of her opponent with an audible crack. "They won't stop unless you kill them!"

Arcee still couldn't quite bring herself to believe that death was the only option. Her indecision cost her. Three of the demons were suddenly upon her, probably figuring that, as the shortest of the robots present, she was the easiest target. They were all much smaller than her, but their strength was surprising and their combined charge caused Arcee to stumble.

One of them dug its claws into Arcee's metal hide. Pain shot along her neural pathways like fire. Despite her inorganic nature Arcee was a living being and her metal skin was connected to her nervous system just like human skin was. She was fully capable of feeling pain and right now she did, in spades.

* * *

Faith flinched, feeling as if she'd been stung by something very sharp. A quick check showed her that this wasn't so, though. She'd just disposed of one of the demons and while others were looking to take up the slack, there were none near enough right now to have hit her. Where had that pain come from?

Taking a quick look around, she saw that Arcee was trying to fend off no less than three of the demons, but without much success. She wasn't going for killing blows and anything less just infuriated her enemies, it seemed. One of them had already dug its claws deep into her metallic hide.

In the exact same spot where Faith had just felt that phantom pain.

She didn't take the time to ponder this mystery. This was a battle and she had no time for anything but the fight. Leaping across a demon that was looking to take her down, she made her way over to her robot friend and proceeded to tear the demons off of her. The one who had clawed her tried to hold on, but she quickly twisted its neck.

"Stop with the kiddie gloves," she yelled at Arcee once the Autobot was free. "Kill them or be killed, it's your choice!" Without waiting for an answer from the shocked robot she stormed off, noticing that most of the demons were swarming right towards Optimus.

* * *

Arcee looked after Faith as she charged into battle again. Was she right? She had done everything she could think of to get the creatures to back off. She had wounded them, thrown them across the room, even kicked one of them (though not full force or she would have torn him in half). Nothing had worked. Everything that didn't knock them out just seemed to make them angrier and they attacked again. And even those that were knocked out quickly recovered and joined the battle once more.

Was killing really the only answer? Strangely enough the possibility of killing these creatures didn't seem to bother her as much as it had two minutes ago. Now, with these things before her, some inner voice seemed to scream at her to put them out of her misery. As if some instinct wanted her to kill them as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Another of the demons jumped to attack her and, before she even had time to think, Arcee brought up her gun, set it to full strength, and fired. The creature was caught by the high-intensity laser beam and only a shadow on the wall remained.

For a moment Arcee was frozen in shock, but only for a moment. More of the creatures came pouring out of that portal every moment. It seemed they were out of options. She started picking her targets and fired.

* * *

Despite what some people said - most of them his sworn enemies - Optimus Prime was neither a fool, nor was he a spineless pacifist. Yes, he detested war and fighting. Yes, the day when he could put his arms down for good couldn't come too soon. Yet he knew that sometimes it was necessary to fight in order to ensure peace and freedom for his people and others. So he fought when necessary and he could say without being arrogant that he was better at it than most.

Optimus realized that they were in a very serious situation. These creatures had breached the defences of his base and came pouring in through that strange gateway. Individually they were not a threat to any of his people, but with sufficient numbers they could overwhelm them. They had not reacted to any of his threats or demands and didn't seem interested in talking. And Optimus was also quite aware that most of them were swarming toward him once again, after the priceless treasure secured behind his chest plate.

And so, with a heavy spark, Optimus Prime gave the one order he detested the most.

"Autobots! Lethal force authorized! Take them down!"

End Part 5


	6. Pilot, p6 of 7

**Author's Note **: I've struggled somewhat with the portrayal of Optimus Prime in this story, seeing as TV Prime (in any incarnation) never killed, not even when he had his worst enemy at his mercy. I'm probably taking some liberties with his character, but I hope his rationalization for giving a killing order is sound.

Also, I'm kind of expanding the powers and nature of the Slayer a bit. Not making it more powerful (at least not in the traditional way), but rather seeking a logical way to explain how a Slayer manages to be just powerful enough to beat a lowly vampire one minute, but can exchange blows with a god the next. Hope it makes sense to you.

Some things from the reviews:

_David Knight _: You'll see at least one pro and one more con to the spark alignment in this very chapter.

_Lennox RH _: I think you're thinking of G1 Prime with that Battle Axe and with Ironhide there. As I'm basing this on the RID Autobots, no Ironhide (at least not originally, I might put him in later along with some other non-RID Transformers), and I don't think RID Prime had an axe, either. But you can bet Faith will be somewhat impressed once the Autobots really cut loose.

_Deacon _: Glad I could draw a non-Transformer fan into this story and make him understand the characters. I hope you'll continue reading and I'll be giving some more info on the Transformers as this story progresses.

_Darklight _: The mastermind behind the demons' attack on Optimus will be revealed, but not quite yet. Need to keep up the suspense, don't you think?

_Den Scurman _: Optimus would never give a killing order lightly, so I'm going to put in some repercussions to that in this and the next chapter. He'll be thinking about that for a while, you can bet.

_Tefla _: I honestly don't know whether I'm ever going to return to Children of my dreams. I have rediscovered some passion for Buffy fanfic, it seems, but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough.

And now, on with the show.

* * *

**Part 6: Demons Get Stomped **

Faith had to stop and close her eyes for a moment to chase away the spots in her vision. Man, once those giant robot friends of hers finally decided to get down to business and opened up, it was one hell of a spectacle. The lasers were so bright it was hurting her eyes. Friggin' lasers! She almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. She'd thought her life had turned into a fantasy novel, but now it was a sci-fi show.

Looking around, she really had to admit that watching her new friends in action was damn amazing. She'd seen Arcee coming around even before Optimus did, blasting several demons to ashes with amazing speed. Come to think of it, she'd actually felt Arcee come around to her point of view. Just as she had felt her get clawed by that demon. What was that all about?

Anyway, now they were all doing it. And the demons were getting slaughtered. Laser beams were vaporizing them, huge metal fists and feet were squashing them, unrelenting machine strength was pushing them back. Even Arcee, the smallest of the robots, was about five times as strong as the strongest of these creatures and could easily tear them to pieces.

Most impressive of them all was Optimus. For a guy who didn't like killing, he sure was good at it. He moved with a speed belying his massive bulk and she had yet to see him miss even a single shot. His face was unreadable thanks to that mouth guard he wore, but he had an air of someone who went about his task with the utmost concentration, yet no passion. By now he had accounted for as many demons as most of the rest of his team combined.

The problem was, though, that there were always more to replace the ones that had croaked. That stupid portal in the repair bay was bringing in bucket loads of them with no end in sight. And while the robots were doing lots of damage, they were taking damage, too. In the relatively close confines of the corridors their enormous size worked against them. The demons spread out and struck whenever they got close enough. It cost them dearly, but sooner or later they'd overrun their foes.

The fear she had pushed away earlier returned its icy grip to her heart. This wasn't Kakistos, but it was starting to turn into the same direction. Here she was, the Slayer, charged with protecting the world from supernatural bad guys, and not only was she getting upstaged by some alien robots (something she could probably live with), but it was becoming more and more obvious that they were going to lose and there was nothing she could do about it. She would fail again. More people who had been good to her, who had helped her, would die. People she needed to save, had to save.

Desperately looking for a way to turn this thing around, she remembered something her Watcher had once told her. She remembered it word for word.

"The Slayer knows," Clarice had said. "It has the power to face and defeat every demon, every monster, and every obstacle it can possibly face. The Slayer knows how to bring down every foe and solve every problem. You are the Slayer, Faith. It is just a matter of focus and dedication to bring this knowledge to the surface. Listen to your instincts, allow them to guide you, and you will be able to handle everything life as the Slayer can throw at you."

In the short time Clarice had guided her Faith had found that to be quite true. Being the Slayer gave her enhanced strength and speed, the ability to heal just about any injury, prophetic dreams and some kind of radar to snoop out the bad guys, but her greatest power was something Faith could not quite put into words. A kind of... complete tactical awareness, or at least that was what Clarice had once called it. In the midst of battle she would be hyper-aware of everything around her. Every foe, every ally, everything that could possibly be used as a weapon, everything. It was just a matter of focus.

The only problem was that Faith had always been one to lose focus easily. Her red-hot temper, her insecurities, her lack of faith (no pun intended) in just about everything. She had all this power at her disposal, but even with proper training it would probably take her many more years until she could wield it properly.

She didn't have years, though. She was in the midst of battle, a losing battle, and she needed to do something. Her robot friends might have all the funky weapons, the nifty gadgets, the shiny armour, but they knew squat about what they were fighting. But the Slayer knew. And Faith had to know, too, or they were all going to die very soon. She didn't want to die and she certainly didn't want her new robot buddies to die, either. Not on her watch. Never again.

The demons were now fully focused on the robots, judging them the much bigger threat, leaving Faith more or less free to focus on the portal. The stupid portal was the key and she needed to figure it out and do it fast.

She'd laughed the first time Clarice had tried to teach her focusing techniques, figuring that she'd never have time to do that stuff anyway. It wasn't just about sitting cross-legged and breathing right, though. It was about finding an inner calm, accessing power, turning yourself into a sharp-edged knife instead of a blunt club. Faith had found it ridiculous the first time. The second and third, too, come to think of it, but she wasn't laughing now. She was too busy figuring out how not to die.

She breathed in deep, blending out the sounds of battle all around her, all her senses focused on the damn portal. The fire of battle was burning in her veins, but she shut it out. The always-present fear of Kakistos was shaking her very core, but she ignored it. The irritating voice of her mother, constantly telling her that she was a worthless piece of trash, faded into the background.

Faith was actually surprised how quickly she managed to achieve a state of almost... machine-like clarity.

* * *

Arcee had a high-performance computer for a brain, so she hadn't lost count of the number of demons she'd killed, but she kind of wished she had. There were so many of them. She and her Autobot comrades were tearing into them with frightful effectiveness, but it didn't seem to bother the creatures much. Arcee was almost scared of herself, of the ferociousness and lethal skill with which she was slaughtering them, driven on my some kind of inner compulsion she couldn't make sense of. It was almost as if the very existence of these things offended a part of her.

She had a theory what was happening to her, actually. Prime and Ty had told her about the spark alignment between Faith and she. Unlike the human girl Arcee knew what a spark alignment was, at least in theory. It didn't happen that often and, as far as she knew, had never occurred with non-Cybertronians, but she knew the basics.

This drive to kill these creatures and the almost instinctual knowledge how to do it best... she strongly suspected that this came from Faith. Somehow the alignment between their sparks that had formed during Faith's surgery was connecting them. She could feel what Faith was feeling. This compulsion, almost like a hard-wired command protocol, was telling her to eradicate these demons.

When Faith had said that she'd been given a tune-up in order to help her take care of the bad guys, Arcee hadn't realized what she had meant. It wasn't just her superhuman leaping ability or the obvious skill she displayed in killing these creatures. It was more than that. Just like all Autobots were given a base programming at the start of their life to instil values, morals, and ethics into them, Faith seemed to have been given a base programming that told her to rid the world of demons. A programming that was beginning to influence her across this strange link they had formed.

It scared Arcee. It scared her very much.

* * *

The Autobots were part of a cybernetic race. Their bodies were finely tuned instruments of steel and circuitry. They had senses an organic being could not even dream of, able to perceive the world through a score of different scanners. Everything was powered by the highly-concentrated form of energy that flowed through their metal veins, called Energon. And they were given life by their spark, which was their soul, their life force.

As the battle roared on, Arcee's spark was connecting with its aligned counterpart. There were differences between the two, yes, but they were but details. So what if Faith's spark was not contained inside an armoured chamber deep inside her body? So what if it oscillated on a different frequency? At a fundamental level they were still the same. Their two sparks had met and fused during Faith's surgery and though the fusion had been severed when the interlink protocol had ended, a connection remained.

That connection was now brimming with activity. The Slayer inside Faith had the instinctual knowledge and skill to grasp and overcome any problem, any obstacle, but Faith's lack of training, self-control, and focus was holding it back. Arcee didn't understand the concepts of magic and the supernatural, her senses could not perceive it, but she had the focus and discipline of a trained warrior.

Though neither participant quite understood what was happening, their worlds suddenly joined. It was a raw, imperfect joining, but it crackled with purpose. The Slayer inside Faith was the ultimate problem-solver, able and eager to utilize any and all available tools. Right now a new tool was available, so it reached out to encompass Arcee.

Arcee's mainframe tried to adapt to this new presence, rewriting programs, changing command codes, transforming. Cybertronians were a race of shape shifters and that extended to both their bodies and their minds. They had been built to adapt to any terrain, any world, any situation, and come out on top.

In the strangest of ways this supernaturally empowered teenager and cybernetic robot warrior found some common ground to start from. Both their lives were defined by a similar credo: Adapt or die.

Suddenly, violently, Arcee's perception shifted. Sensors that had previously been unable to lock onto this strange gateway the demons were using were now fully focused on it, analysis routines went over streams of data that would have been incomprehensible to them but moments earlier. Energy was detected, its nature and frequency indecipherable, but it could still be traced.

Faith and Arcee both saw how the gateway that brought the demons into Autobase was crackling with that strange energy and they saw where it came from. It flowed through the bodies of the demons, it surged through their veins, and it sparked out from every drop of blood that had been spilled in this place. As more of the demons died, as more blood was spilled, the portal only grew bigger and more stable.

"It's the blood," they both yelled at the same time.

* * *

Optimus Prime was opening up with all the fire power he dared given the limitations of the battle field, but it wasn't enough. The demons were still pouring in through the gateway and his sensors still refused to tell him what it was or how it worked. Ty was on his com link, but she didn't have any better luck. This thing resisted all analysis and, as a rather risky shot on the part of Sideburn had proven, laser fire as well.

Three more demons died as he swept the corridor with more laser fire, another one as he stepped on it. They arrived faster than he could kill them, though, and he didn't dare shift into his more powerful battle mode. Within the narrow confines of the corridors he would almost inevitably injure as many of his own troops as opponents. But something needed to be done. And fast.

"It's the blood," someone suddenly yelled. He needed a moment to identify the voice. It was made a bit more difficult by the fact that it was actually two voices speaking at exactly the same time in exactly the same tone. Faith and Arcee? What did they mean with...

Being cybernetic in nature had some advantages. Arcee activated her external data port and began to broadcast tactical data to her Autobot comrades. It scrolled across Optimus' vision, showing him what the younger Autobot saw. How was this possible? His own sensors were at least as good as Arcee's, probably better. How was she able to... no, it didn't matter right now. What did matter was that she had found a possible solution to their problem. The how and why could wait until later.

"Autobots," he commanded. "Weapons at maximum intensity! I want every spot of blood gone from my base!"

His soldiers complied without questions, though they, too, probably wondered how Arcee had managed this feat. Optimus had some suspicions regarding this matter, but it could wait. Right now he changed the setting of his weapon and began to vaporize every demon and all traces of their blood his scanners could find.

The demons' demeanour changed in an instant. They obviously realized that they had been found out and that their way in and out of Autobase was endangered. Optimus briefly considered that they might call for a retreat, but quickly banished that notion. These creatures had already demonstrated a complete disregard for their own lives and seemed interested solely in completing their mission. So they attacked even more viciously than before.

Dying by the droves, the creatures nevertheless managed to push past the curtain of laser fire the Autobots had put up and almost a dozen of them tackled Optimus before he could get out of their reach. He managed to throw two of them off, sending them flying with enough force to splinter their skulls against the nearest wall. One more died under his left foot, yet another as he made the mistake of coming in front of this weapon.

The others got through, though, and wrestled him to the ground with their combined strength. Optimus fought for all he was worth, but they were like leeches, digging their claws into his metal hide and hanging on for dear life. Two of them were digging deep into his chest plate, sending waves of agony along his nerves, but he ignored it. They were still after the Matrix. He couldn't allow them to get it.

* * *

Faith found herself on her knees with no clear idea how she had gotten there. Whatever had just happened, it had knocked the wind out of her but good. She remembered a sudden shift in perception, a clear realization of how that friggin' portal worked and how it could be disrupted, then it was over. She looked over, her eyes meeting those of Arcee. Something had happened between them, something they didn't yet understand.

She really had to remember to ask fire truck guy and Ty about this spark alignment stuff they had mentioned earlier.

Speaking of which, her eyes roamed across the corridor, looking for the robot in question. The Autobots were busy annihilating all traces of the demon blood they could find. Yes, she had told them to do that, hadn't she? Well, not she as such, but Optimus after she said so. Or Arcee said so. Or... fuck, it was getting very confusing. She needed some ass to kick.

Faith started to move, once again allowing her instincts to take over, slashing at demons wherever she could find them. She was shedding more demon blood, okay, but it couldn't be helped right now. She didn't have any friggin' laser cannon to clean it up with. Maybe she should stick to wringing demon necks. Well, whatever worked.

Finally spotting fire truck guy, she lost all flippancy as soon as she had gained it. The big guy was prone and at least eight demons were all over him. He was still fighting, but they had him down and were ripping away at his chest plate like there was no tomorrow. The rest of their brethren seemed fully occupied keeping the other robots from helping their leader, so she guessed it was all up to her. Déjà vu, much?

Despite feeling winded from that strange meeting of the minds she's just had, she jumped into action with blinding speed. Fire truck guy would have to forgive her for jumping onto his chest as well, couldn't be helped. One demon neck broken, two demon necks broken. A third turned to fight her and landed a thundering punch on her jaw, making her see stars. Her concentration remained unbroken, though - which was a strange experience for someone who usually got distracted by pretty much anything - and she disposed of demon number three as well.

She approached the two demons digging their claws into fire truck guy's chest plate just as they managed to rip away a full plate of armour. Then everything seemed to come to a sudden stop.

There was a light glowing in Optimus' chest, a light so bright and shiny that everyone who noticed it was transfixed by it. It spilled out of his chest like liquid gold and flooded the room, touching everyone in it. For a brief yet eternal moment Faith felt utterly happy and content. It was as if the hand of God was reaching down from the heavens and patting her head, telling her that she was good, that she was brave, that everything would turn out all right.

Then the moment was over.

Faith had been in mid-movement and now continued on, disoriented and confused. She stumbled into the two demons, both of which seemed to be writhing in some kind of pain. It caused one of them to lose his hold on the armour plate it had just ripped off and tumble down from Optimus' body. She quickly regained her bearing and kicked the other one hard enough to snap his neck.

Moments later she had to fight for balance as Optimus' finally managed to dislodge the demons holding his arms down and threw them off, quite forcefully. Faith jumped off his chest as he rose. She caught a brief image of his eyes and the gentle glow they always seemed to have was nowhere to be seen. They were burning an angry red.

She barely had time to get out of the way when he started to move. Yep, he was pissed. The demons didn't even get the chance to flee, so furious was his sudden attack. Laser fire from his rifle scorched the entire corridor in front of him, his metal limbs flashed out in deadly movements that left nothing but demon corpses behind. The only sounds accompanying him were the soft whirr of machinery and the dying sounds of the monsters.

Faith was impressed and scared at the same time. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that this guy didn't kill easily.

* * *

The battle lasted another ten minutes or so before it was finally over. Arcee trailed her weapon across the walls, the beams vaporizing the final traces of demon blood her scanners could find. The gateway had collapsed a minute ago, not enough blood left to feed it, and the rest had just been mopping up.

Silence lay like a heavy fog across them all. All the Autobots present had sustained damages, none worse than Optimus, whose chest was partially ripped open. Faith seemed to be all right, if quite winded. With everything that had happened during this battle, though, none of them were exactly jubilant.

Optimus finally seemed to come out of the frightening rage he had entered when those creatures had dared lay a hand on the Matrix. Arcee could understand him, the thought of these beast touching their sacred life force... it was revolting. Still, it scared her a bit. She had never seen Optimus like this before. She doubted any Autobot had.

The Autobot commander knelt down beside Faith, making him just three times as tall as her instead of six. The two looked at each other.

"I think we have some more talking to do, Faith," he finally said. "About several things."

The human girl sniffed. "You do have a talent for stating the obvious, don't you?"

That managed to lighten the mood somewhat. Ty's hologram appeared beside them, Autobase's main computer once again able to concentrate on other things beside damage control.

"There is one final thing we need to do before that," she said.

"What?" Faith asked, seeing that Ty was looking at her. It appeared that she was only noticing now that her formerly white overall was stained with quite a bit of demon blood.

"Damn it," she cursed, then quickly unzipped and stepped out of the ruined garment. "Okay, smoke the thing. It's not like anyone here hasn't already seen me naked."

Arcee managed a laugh as she vaporized the overall and thereby removed the final traces of demon blood from Autobase.

End Chapter 6


	7. Pilot, p7 of 7

**Author's Note: ** Well, this first story arc is coming to an end. This chapter and an epilogue to go, then we're done for the pilot. Will the series be produced? Well, it largely depends on the feedback I'm getting, but as of now it looks pretty good. To answer some of it:

_Thsutton _: I think the Buffy series proved that, after a certain point, a Slayer doesn't really need a Watcher anymore. That would be the point where, if you put in my interpretation of the lore, they get so much in touch with the power that drives them that they can handle pretty much anything by instinct. But that's just my take on it.

_Gregdoreza _: There is never anything wrong with naked Faith. Besides, I did provide a good reason for her to be naked, didn't I? There was just no way to avoid having her naked, just no way. Had to be done. ;-)

_Den Scurman _: Glad you liked the fight scene, though I'm wondering: How many Autobot vs. demonic horde battles have you read? Anyway, don't be too sad, it's only going to be the ending of the first story arc. I do plan to continue this. Maybe. We'll see how many reviewers demand a continuation.

_Mountain King _: I have thought about the whole thing with demons having no soul/spark, so the Autobots shouldn't feel bad about killing them, but haven't brought it in for several reasons. First, I doubt Faith is so philosophically inclined as to debate the whole soul/spark thing with the bots. Second, I'm not even sure she knows about the whole demons-have-no-soul thing, maybe her Watcher hasn't told her? You can be sure it will come up eventually, though, at the latest when and if they encounter a certain souled vampire. And third, I don't want the Autobots to turn into demon-killing-machines, so some conflict has to remain there.

_Lennox __ RH _: Glad you liked my explanation of the Slayer abilities. As for Buffy, I think she ignored her instincts so often because she didn't like being the Slayer and did everything she could to be a normal girl. Faith is just the other way around, she loves being the Slayer despite everything that happened to her, and so I think she is more liable to listen to her instincts.

_StoneCold _: I'm not a big fan of the RID cartoon, either, but I felt its premise was best suited to my purposes and the toys were way cool. As you can see in this very chapter, though, I'm introducing quite a bit from other Transformers lines, including G1. I won't be duplicating the (very childish) story from the RID cartoon, don't worry.

_Allen Pitt _: Glad you liked my Slayer explanation. I also figured that the Slayers needed to have something extra on top of their strength and speed, otherwise they wouldn't be as effective as they are. And Faith riding into the Dale on Arcee? Will probably happen, but not just yet.

_David Knight _: You are right, this isn't the end of the story as such, just of this one story arc. It might take a bit longer than one or two days until I begin the next one, but the odds are pretty good that it will happen.

_Darklight _: Should Faith go to Sunnydale, the Mayor will probably play a part in her future. As for Faith's now partially-Cybertronian body, it might play a role in her future as well, but the point of her surgery at the hands of the Autobots was not to power her up, but to link her with Arcee. So while the Cybertronian body parts might have some consequences yet, don't wait for Faith to shout "Faith! Transform!" and change into a robot head or anything.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Chapter 7: Questions on Magic, Gods, and ****Sparks **

They were back in the same conference room as before, sitting in the same spots, but the mood was very different from before. It wasn't just the fact that both robots present still showed visible signs of battle damage. Neither was it the human girl's new white overall, provided by the holographic woman standing next to her on the table. No, lots of things had changed since they had last sat here barely half an hour ago. Most of them not visible to the naked eye, but very significant nevertheless.

Optimus Prime sat at the head of the table, the Autobot leader in a sullen mood. It was well known among the ranks of the Autobots that Optimus Prime was always in such a mood on those rare occasions when a situation demanded him to kill. Killing was not something that came naturally to Autobots, it went against their base programming. They had originally been designed as builders and protectors, never destroyers. The ongoing war against the Decepticons had forced them to change, to adapt, but they hadn't done so willingly. Least of all their commander.

Arcee's mood was rather similar to that of her leader. She, too, had killed today and didn't like it any better than he did. On top of that, though, she had to deal with that strange connection that had become active between her and the human girl during the battle. Until this morning Arcee had never considered humans anything but a mission, and a boring one at that. All that had changed in a matter of hours and now the female Autobot found herself wondering how much of that change in outlook had come naturally and how much of it was forced by the spark alignment between Faith and she.

Faith was in a funky mood as well, but it had little to do with killing. Killing was something she had done almost every night for the past few months. It was part of what she was, what she had become. She was the Slayer and killing demons was as natural for her as breathing. No, what had her in a mood was pretty much everything but the killing. She was still a child and on top of everything else that had happened to her in the last few weeks she had now become involved in a very strange and dangerous clash between two very different worlds. To say that she had trouble wrapping her mind around it all was an understatement.

"So what is that thing in your chest?" Faith asked, finally breaking the gloomy silence.

She could still see it through Optimus' torn-open chest plate. It looked a bit like an egg with handles on the side and was about as big as she, if not bigger. The egg was comprised of two halves, between which a glowing... something was contained. Some kind of crystal that seemed to pulse with an inner light. The light was dim right now, but it hadn't been during the battle when it had spilled out of Optimus' chest.

Optimus seemed to consider whether or not to answer the question, which made Faith angry.

"Look, fire truck guy! I saved your metal ass! Twice! I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but those demons were obviously after that thing in your chest, so what the fuck is it?"

"It's not that we're not grateful for your help, Faith," Optimus said. "We are. I am. I owe you a lot. But it isn't that simple. That... thing, as you call it, is our most prized possession, our most sacred artefact. Its protection has been entrusted to me. It's... hard to trust another with this and I have known you less than a day."

"I'm not asking you to hand it over, big guy," Faith said, somewhat regretting her outburst. "It's just that... those guys were pretty determined. And I've learned that, when demons are that determined to get something, it usually spells danger to lots of innocent people, maybe the whole world. And protecting this world from demons has been entrusted to me, good idea or not. So I need answers."

Optimus nodded.

"You are right. It just never occurred to me that anything on this world might pose a danger to us or the Matrix. That was an arrogant oversight on my part, it seems. One I need to correct. So to answer your question, it is called the Matrix. It has been in our possession since before recorded time, always passed down from one Autobot leader to the next. It is said to carry the wisdom and knowledge of all who have carried it in the past and many miraculous powers are attributed to it, most of them probably myths."

"What happened during the battle wasn't a myth, Optimus," Arcee spoke up for the first time. "That light... did that ever happen before? I have never felt anything like it. It was like, like..."

"Like God smiling down on you?" Faith asked, looking at her robot friend. After a moment Arcee nodded. It was as good a description of what she had felt as any she might have come up with.

"One of our religions," Optimus explained, "proposes that the Matrix is actually a portion of the universal life force. A splinter of God, if you will. There is actually some evidence that might be used to support this claim, as the Matrix is known to heal damages and create life. There is no concrete proof either way, though. It remains the greatest mystery of our kind."

Faith was trying to wrap her mind around this, at the same time trying not to weird out about the idea of robots having religion. A part of the universal life force, he had said. A splinter of God. Man, Clarice would have loved this. Faith wasn't a Watcher, though. She hadn't dedicated her life to learning all she could about the supernatural. She was just a young girl and the only thing she could rely on was her instincts.

"Could I... could I touch it?" she asked.

Optimus hesitated a long time, but finally nodded. He opened his damaged chest casing and took the Matrix out, reverently placing it on the table in front of him. One of his giant hands remained on the handles, she noticed, while the other had inched closer to the rifle he carried on his hip. He obviously took protecting it extremely seriously. Hesitantly moving forwards, she reached out to touch it.

The metal casing of the Matrix was solid, but surprisingly warm. There was a feeling like... she didn't find words to describe it. Something was in there, something wonderful and terrifying. She could feel it at the very edge of perception. It wasn't evil, definitely not. Something told her it was way above such mortal concepts as good and evil. It felt... comforting, yet awe inspiring. One thing was for sure, though. It felt decidedly supernatural to her.

"I think it's magic," she said, letting go of the Matrix with some effort. It felt so good to touch it. "Or maybe something much greater than magic, like... I don't know. Maybe your God theory isn't that far off."

Optimus carefully placed the Matrix back into his chest, even as both Arcee and he were giving her sceptical looks.

"Hey, I'm just saying what it feels like to me. It's not like I can print out a fully-detailed computer analysis or something."

"Whatever the true nature of the Matrix might be," Ty said, the hologram involving herself in the conversation, "it has obviously attracted the attention of some of this world's denizens. It's something we will have to deal with if we want to stay here for any length of time."

Faith nodded vigorously. "Demons dig powerful magics. It's a safe bet you will have quite a few of them after your assplate as long as you carry that thing inside your chest, fire truck guy."

Optimus leaned back, folding his massive hands in front of his chest. "I am well aware of that. And it leads me to something I wanted to discuss with you, Faith. With you and Arcee, actually," he added with a glance toward the female Autobot.

"That wouldn't have anything to do with that weird spark thing you were telling us about?"

"Your spark alignment, yes."

He motioned toward Ty, who took over the part of explaining.

"It goes back some thousands of your years, Faith. We were in the middle of the Great War with the Decepticons and there was an escalating arms race going on, both sides looking for ways to create better, more powerful warriors. There is a limit to how much performance a single spark can wring out of even the most powerful body, so the Decepticons performed experiments in fusing sparks together into a stronger, more powerful one.

"The first results of these experiments were horrible failures, but they finally developed the interlink protocol that allowed a temporary fusion of two or more distinct sparks into a greater whole. This gestalt spark would be much more powerful than the sum of its parts and able to animate and fully utilize bodies of much greater power. Both sides developed such gestalt warriors then - Transformers who could combine their bodies and sparks into a greater whole - and sent them to the battle field.

"It soon became apparent that not every spark fusion was as successful as others. The interlink protocol could force a fusion between any two or more sparks, but the results would vary greatly. Only very few cases actually produced fully harmonious fusions and most of these cases were accompanied by a phenomenon called a spark alignment. Meaning that even when separated again the sparks would retain a connection of sorts. This connection would never be the same in any two cases, but usually entailed shared awareness of a sort along with other, less predictable side effects."

"And that is what happened between Arcee and me?" Faith asked.

"As far as we can tell. As I said earlier, to our knowledge you are the first successful spark fusion between a Cybertronian and an organic being. We certainly didn't expect a spark alignment to happen and... well, we can't really be sure how much similarity it will have to a purely Cybertronian spark alignment."

"Something happened between you two during the battle," Optimus interjected.

"Yes," Arcee said. "For a moment it was like... like we were looking through the same pair of optics. As if our senses had joined together in order to work better."

"And I felt it when you got clawed," Faith added. "Those demons sunk their claws into you and I felt the pain in the exact same spot."

This was news to Arcee, who looked at her human friend with a certain amount of shock. "Faith, I'm so sorry. If I hadn't hesitated..."

"You didn't know, Arcee, I'm not blaming ya! Just saying, it was pretty weird."

The two looked at each other and both could feel... something. Neither could consciously grasp it nor define it, but it was there, hanging between them like a living thing.

"I have a proposition for you both," Optimus said, breaking the silence between them. "And it is a proposition, Arcee, not an order. I want to be clear about this."

"Propose away," Faith said, squatting down on the table and giving her best impression of an attentive school girl.

"It is obvious we need to learn more about magic and demons if we want to operate effectively on this planet," Optimus began. "We also need to find out about this link between you, how it could happen and what it means. I am thinking we might be able to combine these two."

"How?" Arcee asked.

"I would like to send you on an extended field mission, Arcee. Your assignment would be to gather as much information about magic and demons in general and," he motioned towards his shredded chest plate, "about our uninvited visitors in particular."

He looked at Faith. "And I think it would be a good start to your mission to accompany Faith on her travels for a while. If she agrees, that is."

Faith's thoughts were going off in several different directions at once. Arcee was to accompany her? That was a wicked idea. Having a giant alien robot for company wouldn't just be fun, it would also put her a good step ahead of Kakistos.

A moment later she reprimanded herself. No way, she couldn't drag anyone else into this. The last person who had been by her side had been Clarice and it had ended in blood and tears. And while Arcee had neither, she could still be hurt and killed. The last thing Faith wanted was another death on her hands because she wasn't good enough to do her job properly.

"I'm not sure that is a good idea," she said, even though a part of her cried out in protest. "Not that it wouldn't be wicked cool going on the road with you, Arcee, but... people who hang around me tend to die."

"Cybertronians don't die easily," Arcee told her. "Besides, from what you said earlier it seems we are stuck together either way. So if something is going to hurt either of us, wouldn't it be better if the other one was close by instead of writhing in shared pain a thousand miles away?"

Faith gave her a dirty look. "I hate it when they use logic on me." Inside, though, she was torn. There was that voice that always told her she was nothing but trash and would bring only grief to anyone who got close to her. Another voice told her that she was meant to be alone, that she had to be strong and independent in order to fulfil her destiny.

She was tired of being alone, though. Three weeks on the run from Kakistos had been more than enough alone time. Always on the run, scared of every shadow, expecting every sunset to be her last. She'd headed toward that strange town called Sunnydale in the hope that the local Watcher there might be able to help her, but it had been a fleeting hope at best.

This might be a far better hope to cling to.

"Okay," she finally said. "But I'm gonna need some things."

"Such as?" Ty asked.

"All my clothes and what little money I had left got burned in that fire I rescued your boss out of, so I'm gonna need replacements. Also, I don't have a driver's license, so if I'm gonna ride around on Ms. Bullet Bike here I'll need some papers or every cop from here to California is gonna bust us."

"No problem," the holographic woman said. "Anything else?"

"Well, now that you mention it," she motioned at her overalls, "do these things have to be white?"

**End Chapter 7 (Epilogue coming soon) **


	8. Pilot, Epilogue

**Author's Note **: A short epilogue to go and the first story arc is a wrap. Judging by the amounts of feedback I've received, a continuation is probably a must, but I'll take a bit of time to work out the next episode, so don't expect it to be up within the next two to three days or so. Might take a bit longer. And, as usual, some points from the reviews before we head to the story:

_Sigma1 _: Glad to see I could draw you into the story. As far as I know this is only the second BtVS / Transformers crossover ever (the first being from Mountain King), so we're pretty much in new territory here.

_Destiny's Dragon _: Don't worry, it's only the end of the first story arc. I am nearly certain now that I will continue this storyline. Will probably be writing the first episode come the weekend.

_Lennox __ RH _: I've left the true nature of the Matrix vague for now, so I can explore it later on. And don't worry, while Arcee will be the main Autobot character, she won't be the only one and I won't flood this story with Buffy characters, either, at least not for the duration.

_Harry2 _: Faith won't arrive in the Dale for a while, yet, but once she does, you can expect things to turn out a little different than in the original series. And check out Faith's wicked new overall at the start of this epilogue.

_Darklight _: Don't know about Faith being a comic book buff, but seeing as she was dropped into the middle of a Sci-Fi-Show, you can expect her to adapt herself to the situation.

_The Sithspawn _: I've spread this story around somewhat, yes, and I'm not at the same chapter all around, but is he farthest along right now. Once the next story arc gets going I'll try to equalize, so you can keep up to date at whatever site you like. And while Sunnydale may be on the roadmap, it's not the first stop for our Slayer-Autobot-duo.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Epilogue: On the Road Again **

Faith was admiring the sleek, sexy biker's outfit Ty had somehow come up with for her. Black with red stripes, it fit her like a glove and showed off all her curves. It wasn't leather, but kinda felt like it. She probably didn't even need the fake driver's license the computer had created for her; any male cop she met would be incapable of coherent thought upon seeing her. The only thing she wasn't quite sure of was the red Autobot crest Ty had included on the back. It looked like a really grumpy face, but she could always pass that off as some kind of band logo.

"Are you done?" Arcee asked, amused by Faith's love affair with her new outfit.

"Hey, some people can't transform into other shapes whenever they feel like it, okay? Besides, don't tell me you don't give that wicked paint job of yours the occasional brush-up, sister."

Arcee laughed, then walked over to a terminal that, so Faith had learned, operated the space bridge terminus here in Autobase. She still didn't understand how it was supposed to work, but if it could get them to any place in the world in zero time, that was just fine with her. She was kind of looking forward to her first conscious space bridge ride.

The question where to start their journey had come up, of course. Faith's first impulse had been to start as far away from where she'd been as possible, hoping that Kakistos would never find her again. Maybe another continent. She quickly realized that this was a fool's hope, though. Kakistos was old as sin and determined like hell to find her. He would, no matter where she hid. So no reason to go to another country where she didn't even speak the language.

There was the matter of Sunnydale, of course. She probably should get in touch with the Watchers, if for no other reason than to tell them about Clarice's death. She shied away from that, though. If they found out she died, they would blame her for it. What kind of Slayer was she if she couldn't even protect her Watcher? No, there had to be other options.

Optimus wanted Arcee to gather information on demons and stuff. So where to start on that? Well, she had heard her Watcher say that there were four major hot spots of demonic activity in America . One was Sunnydale, of course, due to the presence of the Hellmouth. A second Hellmouth was supposedly in Cleveland , though it wasn't as active as the first one. And then there were New York and Los Angeles , the big cities attracting lots of demons as well.

Mentally flipping a coin, Faith decided. "Let's head for LA first, Arcee. Heard there are lots of critters that need killing there."

Her robot friend still didn't seem completely down with the idea of killing demons, but she nodded and set the space bridge. Moments later she had transformed into her bullet bike shape and Faith climbed on - a backpack with some more gifts from Ty on her back - and put on the wicked cool helmet the Autobot AI had made for her.

"Let's burn rubber then," she said, holding on tight.

"Why would we... oh, I get it!" Arcee opened up and they sped into the open maw of the space bridge and towards the start of their mission.

* * *

"I am not amused," the giant, hulking vampire growled, underlining his statement by throwing a nearby vampire minion hard into the nearest wall. The bearer of the bad news in front of him managed to stay calm, though.

"We will find her again," the vampire known as Mr. Trick said. "All our contacts are keeping an eye out."

"You said there was no way she could shake off your tail," Kakistos growled, flexing his cloven hands. "I want that girl."

"That's why you hired me, yes. She proved trickier than I expected. Apparently she used that burning building on her last stop as a diversion to escape. But we know where she is most probably heading. Finding her again won't take long."

Kakistos growled again, but was bit calmer now. His eye socket hurt, the empty place where that child warrior had torn out his eye. Originally she had been just another Slayer to add to his collection of kills, nothing more. Now he wanted to enjoy her suffering, wanted to extend it for years and years, turn her into an art form of pain and agony. Being immortal, he could easily spend a single human lifetime torturing someone and he was looking forward to it. Very much so.

"Find her, Trick," he finally growled, turning away. "And don't think that my patience will hold out much longer."

The vampire called Mr. Trick just nodded and turned to leave, already pulling out his cell phone to inquire with some of his contacts. He was a professional through and through and had been paid a handsome amount of money to keep track of the Slayer. He would not fail.

* * *

Rupert Giles of Sunnydale , California , put down the phone and sighed deeply, rubbing his tired eyes. Clarice Chapel was dead. He hadn't known her that well, but she had been a valued colleague and fellow Watcher. Losing her was far from easy.

The police had managed to identify her body just yesterday. Apparently she had been mutilated quite severely. Being the only other member of the Watchers Council currently on American soil, he had been listed as her emergency contact, so the Boston authorities had informed him. Now it was up to him to contact the Council and let them know of Clarice's death.

Sitting down on his couch, he spent a moment wondering whether or not Clarice's charge was still among the living. The police had not found another body with Clarice, but that didn't mean much. Faith might very well be dead. Well, if she was, he'd find out soon. The Council had ways of knowing when a Slayer died and a new one was chosen.

For a moment he sighed, wondering what kind of heavenly power chose young girls for this unholy work. It wasn't right that these children should be burdened this way. In his time as a Watcher he had personally seen two Slayers perish and it was only thanks to a miracle that his young charge Buffy Summers had returned from that fate. To think that another young girl should have died within just a few months of being chosen... he didn't want to contemplate it.

Unfortunately there was very little he could do right now. Giles knew that Faith had been given his name and some basic background info on the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Since Buffy had just recently returned here to take up her duties again, the Watchers had found it necessary to brief Faith on matters here in case she would be needed. So if Faith was still alive, there was a chance she'd make her way here.

Giles briefly considered telling Buffy about Faith and her Watcher, but then decided against it. They would cross that bridge when necessary, not before. His young charge had more than enough on her platter and Giles suspected that she still blamed herself for the death of Kendra, the Slayer whose death had led to Faith's being called. If she were to learn that Kendra's successor was in trouble... no, better to leave her in the dark for now.

Saying a brief prayer for the young girl, Giles went back to his phone to call the Watchers Council in England .

* * *

"The Sidri failed."

"We should have expected as much. It was too much to hope for that Primus' Chosen could be overtaken by a few simple demons."

"Reports say that they had help. Local help, a Vampire Slayer."

"A Slayer? Troublesome girls, those."

"Should we deal with her?"

"Mmm... no, not yet. But keep close watch on her. Maybe she can be useful in the future."

"What about the Sidri? Should we hire them again for another attempt?"

"No. No, I think we need someone better and more professional for this job."

"Yes, sir."

"One way or another the Matrix shall be ours and then nothing will stand in our way. Our Master will be pleased."

End Pilot

* * *

**Next time on A Slayer Transformed **:

The ancient vampire Kakistos has lost an eye to Faith. He wants revenge in the worst way and nothing, not even a giant alien robot from outer space, is going to stand in his way. Tune in for new story arc entitled "Autobot meets Vampire".


	9. Autobot Meets Vampire, p1 of 7

**Author's Note **: Welcome to the second story arc of "A Slayer Transformed". To answer a few questions right off the bat: No, this story arc will not take place in Sunnydale, but the one following it probably will. This arc will feature Arcee and Faith and only very few other characters from either Buffy or Transformers. That will change in the next two story arcs, though, tentatively titled "Alien Robot on the Hellmouth" and "Enter the Boyfriend".

And to answer some reviews from the final chapter of the first story arc:

_Sigma1_: Glad to hear I could make you bounce. And hope this second story arc can make you bounce even higher.

_Janusi_: Well, this story isn't finished as such, just the first arc. Hope you find the second one as enjoyable as the first.

_Allen Pitt_: As part of Arcee's mission to find out as much as possible about magic and demons, the difference between a human soul, a Transformer spark, and whatever it is that animates demons will come up. Some of it in this very story arc as Arcee meets her first vampires.

_Den Scurman_: You're gonna see more of how a giant robot matches up against demonic creatures, both the rabble and the more powerful ones, but don't expect Arcee to start killing them indiscriminately. She's still an Autobot and they don't kill easily. And I'll take a look at your stories one of these days, promise.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Previously on _A Slayer Transformed _: **

Faith, the newly called Vampire Slayer, chosen defender of the Earth from the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness, is on the run from the ancient vampire Kakistos, who killed her Watcher Clarice Chapel. She encounters Optimus Prime, leader of an alien race of shape-shifting mechanoids called Autobots, who are in hiding on Earth to await the coming of their enemies, the Predacons. Optimus is under attack from demons that are after the fabled Matrix, a sacred Autobot artefact Optimus is sworn to protect.

Faith comes to Optimus' aid, but is severely wounded in the process. The Autobots, judging that she is beyond human medicine, save her life by temporarily fusing her spark - the Autobot term for soul - with the spark of another Autobot, Arcee. An unforeseen consequence of this action is a so-called spark alignment between the two, resulting in a form of shared awareness.

After another demon assault, Optimus realizes that the Autobots need to learn more about demons and magic if they want to operate effectively on Earth. Therefore he sends Arcee on an extended field mission alongside Faith to learn all she can about magic, demons, and the strange connection that has been forged between her and the human girl.

* * *

**Autobot Meets Vampire  
Chapter 1 of 7: City of Demons **

Faith sat on a rooftop, her legs dangling over the edge, the spectacle of the night-time city before her, and considered how very strange her life had become within the last few days.

Oh, not that it hadn't been strange before. Being called as this generation's Vampire Slayer, Earth's chosen defender from the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness, was no small thing by anyone's standards. It had only been several months since her calling, but in those few months she had found life to be more intense and much more adventurous than she would ever have expected it to be.

Sure, it had been dangerous as hell. Most Slayers died young, only very few of them made it past twenty. Having just turned sixteen, though, and endowed with a purpose for the first time in her short life, Faith had enjoyed it tremendously. For most of her life she had been told that she was worthless, nothing but trash. It wasn't true, though. She had been chosen to be Earth's defender, to save it from dangers the common man knew nothing about. She was worth something and that meant the world to her.

Also, for the first time in her life, she had someone who believed in her. Her Watcher Clarice Chapel had been a stern woman, about as warm and loving as a rock, but she had given Faith something no one else ever had: An authority figure that she could respect and who respected her in turn. Despite her emotional distance Clarice had been more of a mother to Faith than her own ever had and together they had taken up the fight against evil.

About four weeks ago everything had gone sour. Faith had thought she'd seen everything, defeated the baddest of the bad, only to learn better. Kakistos, a vampire thousands of years old, powerful beyond measure. Apparently he had only one hobby and that hobby was hunting down Slayers. Faith didn't know how many of her predecessors he had killed over the centuries, but it must have been quite a few.

She had tried to fight him against Clarice's advice and he had beaten her within minutes. She had been prepared for death; it was every Slayer's eventual fate. But Kakistos hadn't given her death. No, that would have been too easy. Instead he had tied her down and made her watch as he had his way with Clarice, doing unspeakable things to her before he finally killed her.

Faith didn't quite remember how she had gotten away. She only knew two things. One, that she had somehow managed to gouge out one of Kakistos' eyes in the process and two, that the ancient vampire would do everything in his power to track her down and kill her slowly.

It was then, just a few days ago, with her running scared across America, that she had encountered her new friends, the Autobots. A race of alien robots, as incredible as it sounded, who had come to Earth to protect the planet from some alien bad guys called the Predacons. They were shape-shifters, able to assume the shape of Earth vehicles and machinery. Their leader was Optimus Prime, a giant fire truck guy, whose ass plate she had saved from a horde of demons.

So here she was, back on the road, now paired off with an Autobot warrior called Arcee. Arcee being a female robot who transformed into a Japanese-style bullet bike. This twisted version of Starsky and Hutch hadn't been her idea, no way. She would have been perfectly fine going on by herself, seeing as people who got close to her usually ended up dead. But fate had had other ideas.

Arcee and she were linked somehow. Faith didn't quite understand this whole spark alignment shit yet, but she had found it to be very, very real. So far it had happened just once, right in the middle of a pitched battle with demons, but the experience was hard to forget. Somehow their senses, their whole awareness had merged into a greater whole, which had been the key to defeating the demons. Also, they had found out that they felt each other's pain, which wasn't that great at all.

That had been three days ago. Optimus Prime wanted to find out more about demons and magic, seeing as the former were apparently quite interested in the mystical gizmo he carried in his chest, the Matrix. And, seeing as she and Arcee had some researching of their own to do regarding the unprecedented link between them, had thought it a good idea to send Arcee on a field trip with her. She was to learn as much about magic and demons as possible.

Faith had decided to start in LA, seeing as it was one of the major demonic hot spots in America. They had arrived here three days ago and Faith had spent the first two of these to get a feel for the city and snoop out the most likely spots for demonic activity. She wasn't usually the careful type, more the Rush'em and pray!' kind of gal, but recent experiences had changed her quite a bit.

Now it was time to get down to business, though. No matter that her stomach was doing flip flops, no matter that she was still scared shitless that Kakistos might turn up at any moment to hunt her down, no matter that she was deathly afraid that she would get her new friend killed somehow. She was the Slayer, damn it, and that meant she was the top of the food chain around here. It was time to prove it.

"See those three over there?" she asked, pointing at a group of men crossing the street down below.

Arcee, normally a five meter tall humanoid robot, was currently in disguise. It still amazed Faith how the nimble Autobot could fold herself together into the shape of a Japanese bullet bike so effortlessly and quickly, but she could. And while people might find it a bit strange to spot a motorbike on a rooftop, it would be much harder to explain the presence of a five meter tall robot.

"Three guys," Arcee said, though there was no telling where exactly her voice was coming from when she was looking like this. "No body heat to speak of. Vampires?"

Faith had given Arcee a crash course in demonology, at least concerning the demons they were most likely to encounter here. Chief among them were, of course, the vampires. Arcee's technological wizardry might not be able to explain or even lock onto most things magical or demonic, but she had quickly learned to spot vampires by way of more physical clues.

"Right. Vampiricus Stupidus, as the scientific term goes. Like I told you, most vampires are pretty stupid. The only things they have going for them are their inhuman strength and speed. Funny thing, most of them don't really know how to use either. Unfortunately you can't tell until you engage them, so it's better to be prepared for the worst."

Damn, she thought, I sound like Clarice. It caused a pang in her heart.

"So you... want to kill them?" Arcee asked.

Yeah, that was another thing about her new friend. She was really skittish about the whole killing thing. Apparently the Autobots had some kind of basic code that allowed killing only in the most extreme situations. This covered all life forms, no matter how ugly, and while they had just recently pulverized quite a few demons, Arcee was apparently not ready to issue a shoot-on-sight order for all demonic species.

Faith had a pretty black-and-white view in those regards. Her Watcher had drilled it into her a thousand times. Vampires and demons weren't alive in the human sense. They walked, they talked, they sucked (literally and figuratively), but they weren't supposed to. Their very presence here on Earth was against all laws of man and god and she was doing the world a favour by wiping them all out. Considering that her Slayer instincts were telling her much the same (though not in so many words) whenever she encountered a demon, she had very little reason to doubt this credo.

"Biker girl," she addressed Arcee by the new nickname she had thought up for her. It wasn't that great, but she hadn't managed to think of anything better for now. "Right now these three are on the prowl for an evening meal. If we sit here and do nothing, they'll kill at least three innocent human beings before the sun rises again."

"And if we just restrain them..."

"And then what? Put'em in a cell? Let them starve until they croak or give them fresh people every night? How do you propose to handle this, girl?"

Arcee knew no answer to that. She had killed demons before, but only upon seeing that there was no other way to survive. Faith doubted she would ever be comfortable doing it.

"Look," Faith finally said when Arcee had no reply handy. "You don't have to help me in this, okay? You're here to learn about demons and crap, so sit tight and watch. I can handle three little vampires on my own."

Without waiting for a reply, Faith leaped off the roof and closed in on her prey.

* * *

Arcee watched silently as the human girl effortlessly dropped from the roof to the ground below and quickly closed in on the three vampires she had targeted. Her almost single-minded pursuit awakened painful memories in Arcee, memories she would have liked to delete. 

Back on Cybertron during the dark days of the Great War the Decepticons had once conquered the entire planet, driving the remaining Autobots underground to wage a guerrilla war. Special, powerful Decepticons called hunter-killers had scoured the devastated regions of the planet, completely focused on finding and killing all surviving Autobots. Arcee herself had nearly fallen victim to such a Decepticon once and Faith eerily reminded her of this hunter.

Like with all Autobots, Arcee's base programming did not include a penchant for warfare or killing. The Decepticons had been designed and built as war machines, but not the Autobots. They were builders, maintainers, protectors, not hunters and definitely not killers. And though the Great War had forced them to rectify their attitudes somewhat, they were still fundamentally opposed to using lethal force unless absolutely necessary.

The problem was that, as far as Arcee could tell so far, lethal force was not only necessary, it was the only option when dealing with these demons. She had seen how they hunted innocent humans as single-mindedly as Faith now pursued them. She had no doubt that Faith was telling the truth when she said that these three would kill before the night was through. And, in some way she didn't quite understand yet, the spark alignment with Faith somehow transmitted the almost primal urge to kill these creatures into Arcee's own mainframe. It was hard to resist this urge, especially since she had trouble coming up with reasons to do it.

Well, her mission wasn't to hunt and kill demons or anything else for that matter (except maybe Decepticons, but that was an entirely different affair). She was here to learn all she could about demons and magic, so that is what she would do. It did occur to her that retreating behind the wording of the orders she had been given was a bit of a coward's way out, but right now she didn't care.

Her sensors had no trouble keeping up with Faith even as the girl ducked into the dark alley the vampires had just disappeared into. There were entirely too many dark alleys in this city for Arcee's taste. Sighing internally, she revved up her engine and jumped off the roof as well, transforming into her robot mode in mid-jump, and changing back into a motorcycle the moment she was safely back on the ground. Activating her holographic driver image (humans tended to react strangely to motorcycles without drivers) she followed Faith down the street.

There was a strange tingle somewhere deep inside her, the exact location untraceable to her diagnostic programs. She recognized it, though. It was the same strange feeling, although to a much lesser degree, that she had experienced during the demon assault on Autobase. It was the spark alignment between Faith and she, coming awake with the promise of impending combat.

Arcee concentrated on the strange sensation, intending to analyze as much and as long as the situation allowed. So far the demons known as vampires had only registered on her sensors as human bodies with a peculiarly low body temperature, nothing else. Now, though, her connection with Faith once again seemed to broaden the range of her sensors in a way she couldn't quite explain yet.

Unlike humans, who still debated whether such a thing as a soul existed or not, Autobots knew that it did. They called it spark and had also found a special frequency on which sparks oscillated. For a race of mechanoid beings that could more or less switch bodies at will, it was an important means of differentiating sentient beings from mindless automations. Human sparks also oscillated in much the same way, but on a different frequency that was much harder to pick up. It was probably because their sparks weren't contained in an armoured chamber somewhere inside their body, but rather took the form of a diffuse energy field that suffused their entire body.

Arcee realized that these vampires also had spark emissions of a sort, but on yet another frequency. Also, the signature was so different that she doubted it had anything to do with sparks in the classical sense. As her sensors became more and more in tune with Faith's Slayer senses, she could almost see it. Unlike the bright radiance of a spark, these beings were animated by a form of energy that coursed through their veins like Energon. She had never seen the likes before.

Before she had time to ponder this phenomenon, Faith was already upon the three vampires. The battle as such was short and brutal, the human girl taking down her opponents with a minimum of fuss and maximum efficiency. Arcee knew that Faith, just like her, was feeling the effects of the spark alignment. Faith had told her that she had always had trouble focusing and keeping her tempter under control. Nothing of the sort was in evidence now, she handled the fight like a seasoned pro.

Kind of like Arcee would have, had her opponents been Decepticons.

Arcee recorded all her observations as she watched her new friend put down the vampires and felt very troubled.

* * *

Neither Faith nor Arcee noticed the little man scurrying through the shadows not far away from them. His name was Danny and he, too, was a vampire, though most of his brethren wondered whether or not the demon blood that had created him had been watered down somewhat. He needed to get really worked up in order to manage a kill and didn't have much of a stomach for brutality and slaughter. A very uncharacteristic demon. 

This probably saved his life, as he barely registered on the Slayer's senses and managed to get away. Danny had planned to meet up with the three vampires she was fighting right now, but he doubted that it would ever happen. Sometimes even a lowly vampire got lucky and managed to take down a Slayer, or so he'd been told, but strangely enough no one knew anyone who had actually seen it happen. So he scurried away, thanking whatever god vampires might have for this lucky break tonight.

Heading into a demon bar to calm his nerves with a drink, Danny spotted a note on the black board near the entrance. It was a wanted poster, almost like the ones in the old Western movies. It showed a dark-haired girl and below the picture there was a phone number and a considerable sum of money, along with the sentence "Wanted: Alive!"

Danny might not have been much of a demon, but he was greedy. So he took out his cell phone and dialled the number. A short conversation later he was put through to someone called Mr. Trick.

End Chapter 1 


	10. Autobot Meets Vampire, p2 of 7

**Author's Note **: This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but since it's mostly an interlude to show what else is going on, it couldn't be avoided. We'll be back with Faith and Arcee in chapter 3. And once again, thanks for the reviews. To answer a few points:

_Allen Pitt _: Angel's dual nature will come up once Arcee and Faith meet him, don't worry. As for the Slayer being able to contact the Council, the Council always appeared as a pretty outdated group that stuck to methods from the previous century, so I don't think they'd think to provide their Slayer with a cell phone.

_Den Scurman _: Glad to hear I'm now your standard for Autobots vs. demonic hordes battles. And I do have a spell checker, but it isn't worth much when the misspelled word isn't misspelled as such, just the wrong word for the context. But I'll try and get better about it.

_Harry2 _: The roadtrip to SunnyD and B will happen, but not in this story arc. You'll have to wait for the next one.

_Darklight _: No plans to bring Harry into this, but the concept of non-evil-demons will come up, at the latest when Arcee and Faith meet a certain souled vampire in Sunnydale. You can bet this will mess up Faith's world view a bit.

_jt4702 _: Thanks for the compliments. And some Buffy characters will appear in the next story arc when Faith and Arcee hit Sunnydale.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Chapter 2: Monsters Big and Small **

The black limousine sped down the highway towards the city of Los Angeles, quite severely breaking the speed limit. This had attracted the attention of two police cruisers along the way, both of which were now lying broken somewhere beside the highway. The police officers inside them were dead, their throats slashed, their blood drained. The occupants of the limo were in a hurry and not much interested in keeping a low profile.

The driver of the limousine was a vampire, just like the two men sitting in the back. The driver was little more than a newborn, barely ten years dead, and his lot in unlife was to shut up and follow orders. Whether or not he liked it wasn't of much significance to his employer.

The two vampires in the back were a lot older. The younger of them, a black man in a finely pressed suit, had originally come to America as a slave. He hadn't lived long enough to gain his freedom in the civil war; instead he had become a vampire and gained a freedom of a completely different kind. His human name was long forgotten. The name he went by these days was Mr. Trick.

The other vampire sitting in the back was older still. No one knew exactly how old, maybe not even he himself. He had been old when the Romans created their empire. He had seen civilization rise and fall several times over and usually laughed when the latter happened. The blood of millions of humans, spilled in millions of nights, was on his hands and he relished in that thought.

It was a known fact that, as vampires grew older, maintaining their human guise became more and more difficult until they could no longer hide their demonic features. His hands and feet, once human, had turned cloven and his face held but the barest remnants of humanity. His name was Kakistos and his age was matched only by his power and his displeasure.

"I do hope that this latest lead of yours turns out better than the last," Kakistos growled menacingly, addressing Trick.

The black vampire was inspecting his finely manicured nails, projecting a bored air. It was a façade, of course. Kakistos was angry and his anger seemed to cause the very air around him to shiver in fear. Trick could no more escape this almost palpable dread than anyone else, but he had learned to hide it. He was not one of Kakistos' minions, he was a hired professional. And while that didn't mean that Kakistos would hesitate to kill him should he feel displeased, it did mean he didn't grovel before the ancient demon.

"We have plastered the image of young Ms. Faith on every vampire website and message board in the country. Our contact in Los Angeles is positive he has identified her."

"Is he reliable?"

"As far as any vampire is. Besides, how many dark-haired girls who kill vampires in their spare time can there be? Also, we suspected that she might be running towards Sunnydale, the town where that supposed other Slayer resides. Los Angeles is not that far away from there."

Kakistos growled deep in his throat, but this time it seemed to convey less displeasure and more anticipation. One of his cloven hands unconsciously moved towards the empty socket where his eye had once been. Vampires were able to recover from many damages, but the wound this young Vampire Slayer had given him refused to heal. A lasting reminder of the one that had gotten away from him.

Trick suspected that this, more than anything else, was what grated. If the records were to be believed Kakistos had killed at least two dozen Vampire Slayers in the course of the last thousand years. It was something of a hobby for him, maybe his only one. He had killed Slayers who had lasted years and decades, taken down the most experienced and powerful of them without suffering a scratch. The fact that such a young thing, barely experienced, had wounded him so was a tremendous blow to his oversized ego.

"Find her for me, Trick," Kakistos grumbled, already imagining the things he would do to the young Slayer once he got his hands on her. "Find her for me. I ache to see my lovely little Faith once more."

Mr. Trick was a vampire and, as such, regarded humans as little better than cattle. Still, the thought of what Kakistos was going to do to this young girl once he found her... it was slightly disturbing. Not that it would keep him from doing his job, he just didn't like it as much as he usually did.

Well, he mused, maybe there would be another highway cop to distract him before they reached Los Angeles. Hard work was performed better on a full stomach, he always said.

* * *

Below the city of Tokyo, Japan, was the massive underground installation known as Autobase, home of the elite team of Autobot warriors Optimus Prime had led to Earth. Some years ago the Great War against the Decepticons had come to an end (or so they hoped) , the main force of Decepticons defeated, the Autobots now in full control of their home planet of Cybertron. Unfortunately some splinter factions of Decepticons remained to continue the conflict.

One such faction was called Predacons and Optimus Prime had received reliable intelligence that they were on their way to the planet Earth. The exact reason for their coming here was still in question. It was possible they were after Earth's energy supply, seeing as their own reserves were probably quite low, but there were planets with more natural resources out there than Earth. The humans had done a very thorough job of depleting their planet's reserves.

Optimus pondered this in the quiet hours between patrols, wondering what the Predacons were after. He also did not have exact data regarding their numbers, but even a small force of Transformers could wreck unimaginable havoc on a planet such as this.

What worried him was that they had absolutely zero information on the leader of this splinter faction, except that the Cybertronian in question had apparently taken on the name of Megatron. Megatron had been the first Decepticon warlord, instigator of the civil war between their people. He had been destroyed many years ago, not at he hands of an Autobot, but rather in the course of an internal coup d'état. In the course of the Great War many Decepticon leaders had come and gone (and more than one of them had adopted the name of Megatron for himself), yet none of them had been as cunning and dangerous as the original Megatron had been.

All of the above worried Optimus Prime, all of the above required further thought and analysis. Yet he found that his thoughts kept straying to the events of the last few days. How he had been lured into a trap by these strange creatures called demons. How the brave girl Faith had rescued him, nearly at the cost of her own life. How Arcee had volunteered to help save her and the spark alignment that resulted from this. The demon attack on Autobase itself. All of this, plus the strange reaction of the priceless treasure he carried inside his chest.

The Autobot Matrix was the most sacred artefact of their race, passed down from one Autobot leader to the next since the dawn of their civilisation. It had been a long time since his predecessor Sentinel Prime had passed it on to him and ever since that day he had carried it with him. He had felt its wisdom guide him, had seen its power heal both him and occasionally his fellow warriors, had even seen how it could grant new Transformer life. Yet never had he seen it react like it had when the demons almost managed to get their hands on it.

One thing he knew: The light that spilled forth from the Matrix had touched everyone present that day. And all his warriors, as well as the girl Faith, had reported that it felt... good. How had Faith put it? As if God was smiling down on her. It had felt the same to Optimus, too. As if the great creator, Primus himself, had told him that he was doing a good job.

The demonic invaders, though, they had reacted differently. They had seemed... repulsed, almost allergic. As if the light fundamentally opposed what they were. Did that mean that Faith was right? That these creatures were unnatural and that they should be destroyed? He didn't know. For once the wisdom of the Matrix didn't seem able or willing to aid him.

Sighing, he rose to his feet. It was just about time for his weekly communication with the home world. The Autobot Council of Elders would want to know whether or not the Predacons had arrived yet. He would have to check with his scattered lieutenant commanders to find out whether other remaining Decepticon forces had been stirring up trouble anywhere else. He was also looking forward to speaking with Elita again, it had been much too long since they had had time for each other.

Should he mention this affair with the demons and their apparent quest for the Matrix to anyone? How would they react if he did? The Council of Elders, as wise as they were, were overly superstitious as far as he was concerned. They would probably demand he take the Matrix back to Cybertron for safety. Elita might react much the same way, though she'd be less worried about the Matrix and more about him.

No, he decided, there was no need to stir anything up at this moment. Not until he knew more. Which hopefully would be soon. He resisted the temptation to call Arcee and find out how much she had learned yet. He wasn't one to micromanage. His soldiers were all competent and able to make their own decisions in the field. He would wait.

"Optimus Prime calling Cybertron," he began, activating the communication centre. "Come in, Cybertron."

* * *

"Have you decided on an appropriate pawn yet?"

"No, I haven't. The Sidri were competent to a degree and very much professional, yet they failed. We need someone more powerful, yet also someone we can control. The Matrix is a tempting object. We do not want our pawns to run off with it on their own."

The two figures nodded at each other in perfect understanding. It was their mission to take the Autobot Matrix from the one called Optimus Prime. A mission given to them by their Master, a mission they had to complete successfully or they would suffer unimaginably.

"What about contracting a vampire?"

"Hmm, possibly. It would have to be one with knowledge of this Vampire Slayer that helped Primus' Chosen against the Sidri. It is more than likely we will encounter her again."

"Our contacts say that she is currently in Los Angeles in the company of one of the Chosen."

"Not Optimus Prime, certainly?"

"No, one of his underlings. Still, it might present an opportunity."

"Agreed. Keep a close watch on them. And put the word out that we would like to contract a vampire with insider knowledge of the current Slayer. And... hmm, no need to mention that he or they will have to go up against giant alien robots yet. It would only discourage them."

"I will put the word out."

**End Chapter 2 **


	11. Autobot Meets Vampire, p3 of 7

**Author's Note **: There have been some speculations and guesses as to the identity of the two mysterious Matrix-coveters. Unfortunately (for all of you, that is) their identities will remain a mystery for some time to come. Think of it as the running plot for this season' of Slayer Transformed, if you will. With two big events looming - the coming of the Predacons and the revelation of who exactly seeks the Matrix - I think I will take my time to bring things about slowly. Hope you can all live with that.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Part 3: Autobot in the City**

"I still don't quite see the point of this," Arcee said.

Faith sighed, hefting her backpack as she turned to look at the parked bike again.

"This is the third night in a row we're having this discussion, biker girl. What part of I want a real bed to bunk in' don't you get?"

"Ty could build you a human-sized bed back in Autobase. We could be back there in an eyeblink, it wouldn't cost any money, and..."

"Look, Arcee! My life is strange enough as it is, okay? You have the fantasy stuff with the demons and vampires, now you have the sci-fi stuff with the robots from outer space. At least for those few hours of the day that I get to just lie down and sleep I want things to be normal, okay?"

"And normal is a low-class motel room in this seedy part of town?"

"Yeah, and you know why? No one asks questions here, no one pays attention to where or when I'm going, and there are no bell boys or anything to get hurt if some vamps should decide to pay me a visit. It's perfect. And it's got cable, too."

Arcee finally relented. She still didn't quite see why Faith insisted on staying in this kind of place. Ty had given her a credit card, after all, one that wouldn't run out of credit anytime soon. Faith seemed curiously disinclined to spend money on anything, though. Well, except some new clothes and the occasional drink at a club where the bartenders didn't check IDs.

"Nothing's stopping you from going home to the steel corridor labyrinth, biker girl," Faith called back to her as she approached the door of her room. "I'll see you back out here in the afternoon, okay?"

Faith slammed the door behind her, leaving Arcee alone outside in the parking lot. These past few days had been... strange, to say the least. She was not just thinking of the whole demon stuff, either. When Faith and she had started on this little road trip Arcee had gotten the impression that the two of them would become friends. Oh, not overnight, of course, but they seemed similar enough to build an amiable relationship.

Now she wasn't so sure. Faith was growing more distant, it seemed, and it wasn't just their different opinions when it came to killing, though that was a large topic. No, it seemed more like Faith was deliberately trying to distance herself. Arcee suspected that it might have something to do with what she had said when Optimus had first proposed this joint road trip.

_People who hang around me tend to die._

Arcee knew but the barest outline of what had befallen Faith's former companion, her Watcher Clarice Chapel. She had died somehow and Faith obviously felt responsible. Was this the answer, then? Was Faith trying not to get closer to her because she feared that Arcee would die on her as well?

She wasn't a psi-tech, but Arcee had seen this kind of behaviour pattern many times before on the battle field, especially among veterans. They had lost so many friends and comrades that they refused to get close to anyone, certain that they would only lose them, too. Unfortunately she had no idea how to handle a situation like this.

Well, she probably wouldn't have to handle anything until later in the day. The sun was only just coming up and Faith would probably be sound asleep until at least the early afternoon. Arcee didn't need to sleep, at least not today. Cybertronians did occasionally enter a state close to human sleep, but far less frequently than organic beings. Arcee had had more than ample time to rest, relax, and recharge during the past few weeks, seeing as she'd had little else to do, so rest was not on her mind right now. Neither was a return to Autobase, no matter what she had said earlier.

Deciding to do some exploring of her own, Arcee activated her holographic driver (she selected George Clooney this time) and sped out of the parking lot and onto the street.

She had never been in an American city before, so she quickly began to map out the differences to Tokyo . The people looked different, obviously, though there were lots of Asian humans as well around here. There weren't quite as many skyscrapers, the city itself was more widespread. Interestingly enough this city, just like Tokyo , was built on unstable terrain. In the first thirty minutes of her drive Arcee picked up no less than eight Earth tremors, though only one of them was strong enough to even register on human instruments.

Why did humans persist in building their cities were it was obviously impractical? A short data projection showed that there was a reasonable chance this entire region of the North American continent would fall into the ocean within the next 300 years. It was mostly desert around here, too, the effort of watering all the trees and plants she saw had to be enormous.

Humans, she mused. So far she hadn't managed to really get them. They were such a contrasting species. As individuals, many of them seemed capable of great things. Faith was the perfect example, having risked her life to save Optimus despite never having seen a Cybertronian before. Yet the moment the humans grouped together it seemed they became both destructive and self-destructive.

The city of LA itself was a good example, too, for one of the main problems humans seemed to have: Short sightedness. They seemed unwilling or unable to consider the long-term consequences of their actions. Maybe it was because of their short life spans? Arcee was still considered young in terms of her race despite being thousands of Earth years old. Cybertronians could live forever, at least in theory.

Well, she was not on this road trip to solve the human enigma, she resolved. She was here to learn more about magic and demons. And now, with Faith sound asleep and Arcee out on her own, it was as good a time as any to perform a little experiment.

Faith had said that most demons rested during the day, even those that didn't burn in sunlight like the vampires. That was actually something Arcee had yet to figure out, why they combusted like that. Anyway, in a city as supernaturally active as LA seemed to be, there should be some demonic activity to be found even during the day.

Her sensors had so far proven to be quite limited when it came to recognizing demons. There were some signs she could pick up with them, such as a vampire's body temperature always corresponding exactly to the surrounding temperature. Mostly, though, these creatures operated somewhere outside the range of her sensors.

Thanks to the link with Faith, though, she was somehow able to expand that range. Faith had senses that were specifically attuned to these creatures. Faith couldn't explain how they worked or why, but they did. During the attack on Autobase and, to a lesser degree, during Faith's earlier vampire hunt, Arcee had received sensor data through Faith's senses.

Could she do the same if Faith wasn't present?

Arcee stopped in a side alley - and how come there were so many dark side alleys in a sunny city like LA - and switched off her hologram, now looking to all the world like a parked motorcycle, nothing to worry about. Directly in front of her was the back entrance of a pretty seedy looking club that was still (or already) open despite the early morning hours.

Her sensors had no trouble sweeping the interior of the building. Infrared showed 63 humans inside. Or at least human-shaped heat blobs. Echo probes picked up multiple conversations going on, but the walls were too thick to make out exact words. Magnetic anomaly detectors managed to spot what might be quite a few guns carried by the people inside. Then again, they might just be carrying harmless slabs of metal under their jackets. Yeah, right.

Still, for all she was picking up with her usual sensor wizardry, those might just be perfectly normal human beings inside. Criminals possibly, but still human. There was no way for her sensors to tell otherwise. Not without a little outside assistance.

Arcee concentrated on the spark alignment with Faith. The first time it had happened she'd been surprised, but Cybertronians were built to adapt. Her mainframe had reconfigured itself and now she could identify and focus on the specific wavelength where her spark oscillated in symmetry with that of her human partner. Internal sensors focused on this specific frequency and pumped energy into her signal emitters, locking on to it.

Slowly but steadily she felt her awareness shifting once again. It didn't happen as fast or as completely as during that first, unwanted link-up between them. She didn't know if that was because of the distance, because of Faith probably being asleep, or because of other factors she hadn't yet identified. Still, the range of her sensors expanded as she had expected.

Arcee shifted her attention back towards the building in front of her. Data was streaming in, still telling pretty much the same story as before, but now there was just a little bit more. Not much, but a little bit. Fascinated, she studied the new data.

In one of the building's back rooms she picked up strange energy emissions. Only one figure was present in the room and she could now see the shape of the heat blob fluctuate. It seemed to grow and... develop a second set of arms? Fascinating. A shape shifter? Or something that used magic - whatever that really was - to appear human even though it wasn't?

There was another anomaly and she shifted her attention towards it. Oh, she knew that one. Very little body heat, some kind of fuzzy energy signature that animated a body that should by all accounts be dead. A vampire. A vampire was walking along one corridor and towards what appeared to be some kind of underground exit. A sewer entrance? Well, for someone who combusted in sunlight, a sewer would be the perfect place to use for daylight walks.

Arcee kept a fairly large amount of her processing power and energy supply focused on the alignment with Faith. The rest was focused on the vampire. She had very little trouble following it as it did enter the sewer and traversed the tunnels. Reactivating her hologram she started driving. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but figured that following this creature was a good exercise for her ongoing exploration of the spark alignment.Besides, if this vampire tried to kill someone, she'd have to stop him.

A ripple went through the alignment as she thought that. Almost like a voice-activated program, the Slayer-side of Faith seemed to have become aware as she thought the words vampire' and kill'. Arcee could feel it expand, almost like a foreign program accessing her mainframe.

The terminology wasn't perfect, but the Slayer tried to enter what was effectively an override command into her mainframe. One that would force her to kill this creature. Arcee immediately tried to block the access route, tried to shut down the interlink the alignment had created. At the same time she wondered why nothing like this had happened during Faith's earlier vampire hunt. Maybe it was simply because at that time Faith had been there to carry out the kill. With Faith not present, the Slayer tried to make use of the next-best thing.

Arcee managed to prevent the creation of an override protocol, but the compulsion was still very strong. She continued following the vampire, not certain whether or not she'd be able to stop had she wanted to. It dawned on her that undertaking an experiment like this might have been a mistake.

The vampire kept travelling the length of the sewer until it reached one of LA's warehouse districts. Arcee's sensors showed how it ascended back to the surface inside one of the warehouses. The vampire's home, maybe? The compulsion tried to make her investigate further, to enter and kill, but Arcee decided that enough was enough. She logged the location of the warehouse in order to tell Faith later on, but she wouldn't go any further alone. She didn't quite trust herself right now.

Turning on her wheel, she sped away from the warehouse and onto the nearest express way. Zigzagging through the early morning traffic, she attempted to shut down the alignment, hoping it would get easier with distance from the potential prey. The experiment had gone far enough for one day.Slowly her internal data routines managed to purge the compulsion from her mainframe. The enhancements to her sensor range began to fade. Still, the alignment refused to just die down quietly. Arcee concluded that it had been a definite mistake to try this while Faith was sleeping. With no conscious mind on the other side of the alignment, it was hard to shut it down.

Next time she'd try this with Faith awake.

Maybe she could transmit a part of her consciousness along the alignment and shut it down from the other side? It should be just like accessing a different computer connected to a network. A network of sparks, in this case, but still a network. Well, worth a try. Arcee sent what amounted to a portion of her mind along the alignment.

Moments later she realized she'd made another mistake. Faith's mind was in turmoil, thoughts and memories caught in a whirlwind of images and fears. A nightmare, that was what humans called it. An escalating chain of disharmonious associations. And Arcee was now caught up in it.

The white, black, and pink bullet bike suddenly careened into its side, skidding along the highway in a shower of sparks. The driver image faded, leaving only the vehicle. Other vehicles swerved to avoid it and only a fairly large amount of luck prevented a pile-up. When the motorcycle finally came to a stop and some cars stopped to provide assistance, they all wondered where the driver had gone. They didn't know, of course, that they were looking at an alien life form right at this moment.

One whose mind was now elsewhere.

**End Chapter 3 **


	12. Autobot Meets Vampire, p4 of 7

**Author's Note**: Sorry that I haven't updated in quite a while, but my job is keeping me very busy at the moment and I need some spare time for my girlfriend and my cat as well, so writing is currently a bit on the backburner. But nevertheless, here is a new chapter, the midway point of the second story arc. Things will only heat up from here on out.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 4: How They Met **

An escalating chain of disharmonious associations, that was the name Cybertronian science gave to a phenomenon usually restricted to organic beings. It occurred during the regular rest cycles organic beings were forced to undertake, both for physical regeneration as well as neurological defragmentation. Organic brains didn't assimilate data as efficiently as cybernetic ones, so they needed shutdown periods to structure and properly store all the assimilated information. And when the information was such that it held a negative context for the organic being in question, it could lead to the abovementioned phenomenon.

Humans called it a nightmare and Arcee was now right in the middle of one.

Cursing her own stupidity, Arcee tried to regain control of her own mind. Somehow, in a way she didn't fully understand yet, Faith's sleeping mind had drawn hers into the nightmare she was currently experiencing. It had happened when Arcee had attempted to shut down the spark alignment between them. She had intended to send but a portion of her own consciousness along the link between them in order to shut it down from Faith's side.

She had forgotten that there was nothing normal about this link between her and her human friend, though. They were two completely different species, one organic, one cybernetic, and the alignment between their sparks was unprecedented. She shouldn't have experimented with it during Faith's sleep. It was stupid and now she was paying for it.

Thankfully, even though she found herself unable to disengage from the torrent of images streaming past her, she was not caught up in the emotional side of it. This was Faith's nightmare, not hers, and while the experiences themselves might touch her in some ways, it wasn't her own mind that held the negative context. She was just an unwilling observer, simply along for the ride.

Looking around, she found herself in some kind of human city. American probably. The images had an unreal quality to them, she would never have mistaken it for an actual city. The people passing her in the streets were little more than shades, as Faith probably hadn't paid any attention to their faces during the time this memory was formed. Arcee found herself walking toward a building, some kind of city mansion, and the mansion was the only structure in the street that seemed sharp and complete, the rest were little more than outlines, unimportant for this sequence of events.

It was night and the shadows were unnaturally black. Arcee was walking, but her approach was anything but fluid, consisting more of cut-off impressions than any kind of continuous memory. Maybe Faith's mind had been occupied with other things or maybe this was simply a normal thing for nightmares. What did she know about humans' bad dreams?

Another cut, she was now ascending a stairway. Another cut, standing in front of a door. Another cut, the door was broken. She experienced echoes of emotions not her own. Terror, fear, not for herself, but for someone else. Rage. Eagerness for an upcoming battle. Another cut, she was entering the room behind the door.

The room was big, a living room, but everything inside the room was unreal and in shadow. Only one portion of it stood out, almost as if illuminated by a kind of spotlight. There was a hulking figure standing there, impossible large. Dreams, Arcee knew, paid no attention to logic, therefore it was not impossible for the imposing figures to seem five times as tall as Faith herself, even though the ceiling of the room was a mere six feet above her.

This, Arcee realized, was Kakistos. The information was part of the nightmare. This was Kakistos, impossibly ancient vampire, a monster. Cross-referenced associations entered the nightmare. She saw a woman, Clarice Chapel, lecturing about this Kakistos. She heard the words: Powerful, dangerous, vicious, cruel. She heard Faith's voice, seemingly hailing from her own voicebox, telling Clarice that there was nothing to worry about. Just another vampire.

Kakistos looked monstrous and Arcee wondered how much of this image was real and how much was added by Faith's fear of this creature. For fear it was, even the echo of the emotion was powerful enough to imprint upon her. Arcee looked at Kakistos and couldn't help feel afraid herself, even though she'd never personally met him.

"Little Slayer," the monster growled at her, his voice lecherous and menacing at the same time. Arcee again felt emotions tugging at her, pulling her in several different directions at once. A need to protect Clarice, who was held up like a ragged doll in one of Kakistos' cloven hands. The primal drive to end this demon's existence. And fear. Yes, fear was there as well. And growing. Growing ever more powerful.

Again the events flew past her like still photographs. Punching Kakistos, kicking Kakistos, trying everything she knew to hurt him, to bring him low and make him pay for hurting Clarice. No, not she! Faith. This was Faith's memory. She had to remember that or she would get lost in the ever-increasing torrent of memory and emotion. Faith was doing everything she could to bring down this monster. The Slayer was pounding in her veins, firing her on.

It wasn't enough. There was pain, yet more fear, and terrible humiliation. A voice cut into the memories of battle, a scathing voice that said the same thing over and over again. Not good enough. Just a piece of trash. Worthless. Nothing but trouble. Arcee couldn't tell whose voice that was, but she could feel the words cutting deep.

Down on the ground, pain. So much pain. Not just physical pain. The pain of knowing she had failed. The world became tinged in red. Red like the Energon... no blood, it was blood... flowing from the broken form of Clarice. Kakistos killed her. Right before her... no, Faith's eyes, he killed her. Slowly. Agonizingly slowly.

"And now for you," the monster growled once more. Burning demon eyes turned toward her, seeming to pierce the very depth of her spark. This wasn't real, she tried to remind herself, but somehow the words offered little comfort anymore. She felt herself swept away on a tide of fear and terror, growing exponentially as the memory of Kakistos began to reach for her, his cloven hand coming closer and closer.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

Systems came online again, consciousness rebooted, the world took shape around her once more as fresh data streamed in through her sensors.

Status reports flashed across her field of vision. There was some minor damage to her outer shell, caused by the sudden loss of motor control in the middle of the highway at a velocity of 92 kilometres per hour. Nothing serious, though. Internal systems rated her overall combat condition at ninety-six percent. Internal repair routines would increase it ninety-nine within the next two hours and thirty-six minutes. She'd need a short visit to Autobase's repair bay in order to get some small dents out of her shell.

Arcee noticed that she'd been offline for quite some time. Her internal chronometer showed that it was almost evening. Apparently her system had shut down when the connection formed via the spark alignment between Faith and her had caused a feedback in her mainframe. The equivalent of a circuit breaker had protected her neural net from damages.

Slag it, she thought. What about Faith? Did humans have any such safety measures installed in their brains? She hoped so, but she would still need to check.

Taking in her surroundings, Arcee identified her current location as some kind of vehicle storage area. Apparently someone had transported her inert motorcycle form here. They were probably still searching for the driver. Like all Autobots operating on Earth Arcee had valid license plates for every country and her American ones would lead the authorities to an empty building in a small town in New England, current tenant one John Smith. Nothing to worry about there.

Worried for Faith, she quickly checked the surroundings and, finding no observers in the vicinity, transformed into robot made and leapt over the steel fence surrounding the vehicle storage area. She immediately assumed her motorcycle guise again, now sporting different licence plates than before.

Her holographic driver program was undamaged and she selected an unassuming male driver. No sense calling any attention to herself. Maybe she should change her colours as well as her licence plates, just for the time they stayed in this city. No telling whether or not the authorities would look for the vanished bullet bike. She'd see about that later.

Selecting the quickest route back to Faith's motel room, she analyzed the data that remained from the nightmare she'd shared. If the memories were to be trusted, then she now knew a lot more about Faith's recent past. It appeared that the human girl blamed herself for the death of her Watcher even more than Arcee had guessed. That, and she felt enormous fear in regards to this Kakistos vampire. The idea of Faith being afraid of any demon was strange, but then again, she was still a young girl. Arcee was thousands of years old and had faced hundreds of Decepticons in battle, yet there were still quite a few that scared her.

Arriving at the motel, she scanned Faith's room and found her young friend inside. Pacing, it seemed. She drove close to the door and honked, causing the Slayer to look out the window and then head for the door.

The first thing Arcee realized upon seeing Faith's face was that the young girl was quite obviously enraged.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing?" she yelled, not caring that people might be wondering why she was yelling at the motorcycle instead of the driver.

"Faith, I..." Arcee began.

"I don't care what kind of fucking spark-whatever hangs between us," the Slayer continued, not listening, "you do not go into my head! You get me? You do not, NOT go into my head! You have no business going into my head!"

"It was an accident," Arcee yelled back, figuring it the only way to get a word in edgewise. "I didn't plan for any of this to happen."

"She didn't plan for this to happen, great!" Faith threw her arms up, pacing up and down again. Her hands were clenched into fists and she was obviously trying to keep her temper under control and not doing a good job of it.

"So what?" she asked. "Next time I'm going to sleep, you gonna do other things you didn't plan to inside my head?"

Arcee would have liked to transform and face Faith in robot mode, but they were still outside in a public place. It was hard to argue with someone if you looked like a motorcycle and had no facial expressions or gestures to work with.

"It was stupid, okay," she admitted. "I wanted to see if the spark alignment worked when we weren't close together and... I got carried away. I promise I'll never try anything like this again without telling you."

Hearing her admit her mistake seemed to placate Faith somewhat, but only somewhat. The Slayer was still fuming and Arcee had the distinct impression that her eyes, darting this way and that, were looking for something or someone she could pummel.

"My head is off limits to you," she said in no uncertain terms. "And whatever you saw, forget it! Delete it! Throw out your memory chips! I don't care. And don't get any ideas that we should talk about it or anything. You never saw anything! As far as you're concerned, nothing at all happened! Got me?"

Arcee simply agreed, figuring that any other response would simply drive Faith up the wall. The human girl was obviously quite upset that anyone would know what had happened during her first meeting with Kakistos. Was it shame about having failed to protect her Watcher? Wounded pride? Simple fear? No way to tell right now. Maybe there would be other opportunities to somehow help Faith deal with her past, but it wouldn't be today.

Both were quiet for a moment, Faith with her arms crossed in front of her chest and kicking some dirt around. Arcee, still constrained by her vehicle form, did nothing, just waited. One of the advantages of being a theoretically immortal cybernetic life form was that one learned to be patient.

"Any new revelations regarding our spark thing?" Faith finally asked.

"Well, it seems I can access your demon-specific senses even when you're not in the vicinity. Or conscious, for that matter."

"Wicked!"

"Yeah, but there are side effects. I get the urge to kill demons, too."

Faith chuckled. "I can see how that's a bad thing for you, but I keep telling you: Demons need killing. So don't fret too much about it!"

Arcee wasn't about to launch into another discussion on the sanctity of life vs. the expediency of killing. Not that she would have had the opportunity anyway, because Faith suddenly stiffened, her dark eyes searching the motel parking lot.

Though the spark alignment was quiet at the moment, Arcee had already learned to recognize the signs of Faith going into what she called Slayer-mode'. Something had shown up on her senses, something demonic or magical, and she was now looking for it. Arcee used her own sensors, no matter how inadequate they might in picking up such things without enhancement, and searched the vicinity.

A black limousine was pulling into the parking lot. That was an anomaly in itself, seeing such a luxurious vehicle near a seedy establishment like this one. Faith's eyes fixed on the car, apparently marking it as the source of whatever it was she was sensing. Arcee, too, concentrated on the limo. Her infrared showed nothing inside, but someone was obviously driving the car. Someone without a heat signature.

"Vampires?" Arcee asked, but Faith didn't seem to hear her. Arcee quickly noted that the sun had gone down a few minutes ago.

The limo came to a stop and the driver door opened, a man in a chauffeur uniform disembarking. He was most definitely a vampire, even though he was wearing human features at the moment. He made no move to attack them, though, instead going to the back of the limo and opening the door.

The spark alignment suddenly became active and Arcee felt the fear and terror surging through Faith almost like a physical blow.

"Little Slayer," Kakistos growled as he emerged from the vehicle. "I'm glad I finally caught up with you."

**End Chapter 4 **


	13. Autobot Meets Vampire, p5 of 7

**Author's Note:** Sorry it took so long once again, but work is still keeping me busy and that won't change until mid-October at the earliest, so I'm afraid updates will remain somewhat scarce until then. Hope you can understand and still manage to enjoy this story. Take care!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Nightmare Made Undead Flesh **

Faith stared at the monster in front of her and couldn't do anything. Her body refused to respond, her muscles were frozen, her throat was clenched up with raw, naked fear. He was here. He had found her. Oh God, she was going to die.

"What's the matter, Faith?" Kakistos asked, a broad smile on his monstrous face. "No hug? Aren't you happy to see me again? After all we shared during our last meeting. Blood. Pain."

One of his cloven hands touched the empty socket where she had taken out his eye. "You gave me such a lovely gift of pain last time. I intend to return the favour. And much more than that, my little one."

She still couldn't move. The Slayer was roaring in her veins, but the fear was stronger, drowning out the primal scream of the monster killer.

This couldn't be real. He couldn't have found her. What now? She couldn't fight him, he was too strong. He would kill her, just like he had killed Clarice and made her watch. She'd just gotten lucky last time. He'd been so certain that she was done that he'd let down his guard. He wouldn't be so careless this time. He was as old as dirt and more powerful than she could ever hope to be. There was no hope.

"Faith," a voice whispered to her. "Faith, get yourself together! You're not alone, remember!"

Arcee, yes! She was here. A mega-powerful robot from outer space. Laser weapons and everything. She would help her. She would stand with her against this monster and... and then he would kill her, too. Arcee was powerful, but they'd already learned the hard way that demons were able to hurt her, too. And those stupid portal demons they'd faced in Autobase were nothing compared to Kakistos.

No, she couldn't allow anyone else to die because of her. Not again! Never again!

As if a mental switch had been pulled Faith could move again. She couldn't let it go down here, not where Arcee would get involved. She had to get away. There was no hope to escape from Kakistos, but she had to get away from Arcee. Distract her somehow, elude her. Whatever. Just get away.

"Don't follow me," she yelled at Arcee, then started running.

* * *

"Don't follow you?" Kakistos asked, amused, thinking the order was directed at him. "Surely you jest, my little pet."

Arcee didn't understand it, but Faith was running away and obviously didn't want her to follow. Why? What was going through her head? Well, no matter. Arcee had done a quick perimeter scan and what few bystanders had been around before were now gone. The motel parking lot was empty except for Faith, the vampires, and her.

It went against her orders, but then again, Optimus had only said not to reveal the Autobots' presence to humans. He hadn't said a word about vampires and Arcee was very much sure by now that vampires had very little in common with humans.

Arcee transformed.

"What the hell...?" one of the vampires yelled as the bullet bike in front of them suddenly contorted, shifted, and reconfigured into a new, powerful shape.

Now towering above them in robot mode, Arcee quickly stepped between the vampires and the direction Faith had taken off in. She knew the deep-rooted fear Faith had of this monster, had felt it almost as if it was her own. She knew this kind of terror, had experienced it herself. She wouldn't allow it to get her friend.

"Not another step," she ordered, cranking up her voicebox to give the words a thundering boom. "Leave now, vampires! While you still can."

Three vampires had disembarked from the limousine and half a dozen more had appeared from the shadows, apparently having followed on foot or in some other vehicle. All of them were staring at her with shock and awe. All but one.

Kakistos studied her with his one remaining eye. There was some surprise on his face, but no fear, no shock, and certainly no intention to surrender. His eyes... they reminded Arcee eerily of some of the Decepticons she had faced in combat. The really old and experienced ones. They, too, had eyes like that, eyes that said they had seen and killed it all.

"Take care of this machine," he thundered at his minions. "I will follow my Faith."

With that he started walking past her as if she wasn't there.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear...," she began, reaching for him with a hand big enough to envelop his huge head without difficulty.

Suddenly Kakistos moved with a speed belying his bulk, almost too quickly for her sensors to follow, certainly too quickly for her to react. He was faster even than Faith and, as she realized a moment later, much stronger as well. The ancient vampire grabbed her by her outstretched hand and lifted her off the ground in a classic martial arts throw, slamming her to the pavement.

Slag it, she had seriously underestimated this monster, had been lulled in by his apparent slowness. Arcee needed a second to recover from the shock of the impact, but Kakistos needed no more time than that to move past her and out of her immediate sensor range. He was after Faith and obviously regarded her as nothing but a distraction.

Not so the other vampires. Apparently they found five meter tall robots less impressive after they'd been slammed to the ground, because they were advancing on her now. Also, Arcee's internal repair routines reported that Kakistos had managed to mangle her wrist during the throw, making her right hand unit all but useless. It would impair her transformation ability as well.

"This is just great," she muttered, quickly rising to her feet.

* * *

The vampire known as Mr. Trick quietly retreated into the shadows. There were enough minions out there, he didn't need to be personally involved. Besides, he'd done his job. He had led Kakistos to his prey. The rest was up to the ancient vampire himself. Nowhere in his contract did it say that Trick had to compete against giant machine beings.

Still, he lurked close enough to watch events unfold. He was a businessman and in his trade information was sometimes more valuable than gold. Certainly this strange machine being was something new, something not seen before. There was always the possibility that some people would be interested in something like this and willing to dish out money in return for the right information.

So Trick hung back and observed.

* * *

Kakistos had never seen a giant robot before, but he didn't care. Someone who had lived long enough to see the world advancing from a fire-lit den of primitives to the current bustling civilization was not surprised by much. The machine had proven to be a less than formidable opponent and the only thing he was interested in was Faith.

His sweet little Faith. He could smell her, the heavy aroma of her terror like ambrosia to him. Let his minions deal with the machine, he wanted something living. Something warm and tender he could sink his teeth into again and again. She wouldn't die, no, that would be much too easy. She would suffer first, suffer longer and more terribly than anyone else. Then he would transform her into a vampire, so her suffering could continue for all eternity. Yes, that was what he would do.

Faith was trying to run, but he was faster and her scent was easy to track. She wouldn't evade him a second time. He would catch her. Then she would be his.

* * *

The vampires were all over Arcee and their strength was considerable, but none of them were anywhere near as powerful or fast as Kakistos. She sustained damages, certainly, but they were of minor nature. What stung much more, though, was the realization that she would have to kill again.

The alignment with Faith's spark was active again and even with Faith's terror taking up most of the bandwidth (so to speak), Arcee still managed to pick up yet more impressions from her opponents, impressions analyzed by her sensors.

These creatures didn't have sparks in the classical sense. Some kind of animating energy flooded through their veins, something she couldn't yet grasp, but more and more Arcee was getting certain that they were nothing like any other living thing she'd ever encountered before. They were something different, very different. And they were out to kill her.

So it was with a heavy spark that she decided that Faith's advice had to be heeded in this matter. Activating her weapon, Arcee proceeded to vaporize her opponents with laser fire. The vampires gave off unholy screeches as the fire consumed them, but Arcee did her best to tune them out. There was no other way. She had given them the chance to back off. This was their decision, not hers.

Maybe if she told herself that often enough she wouldn't feel so dirty anymore.

It took only a minute until all her opponents were dust. Arcee took a moment to analyze her damages. Her armour was dented in quite a few places, but except for her damaged wrist and hand there were no damages worth the name. Her energy levels were still holding up good, so she was in pretty decent shape.

Enough to take on this blindingly fast and strong vampire that had kicked her skidplate but minutes ago? Well, there was but one way to find out, wasn't there?

**End Chapter 5**


	14. Autobot Meets Vampire, p6 of 7

**Author's Note **: I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and write chapters faster, but it's not easy right now. Also, the number of reviews has dropped considerably (at least on which isn't helping much (consider this a shameless plug for more reviews).

Maybe it'll help to tell you that in this very chapter there is a cameo of another (non-RID) Transformers character who will make an actual appearance in the story before too long. Or maybe it'll help to know that we're only a few chapters away from reaching Sunnydale. Or maybe all of that doesn't interest you much. In which case I'll go quietly sulking into the corner, musing about the unfairness of being an underappreciated fiction genius. ;-)

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Chapter 6: With Just a Little Help From My Friends **

Had she lost him? Was he gone?

Faith pressed herself as tightly as she could into the darkest corner she had found, hoping against hope that the hunter on her tail had lost her. It was a fool's hope, she knew that. She was sweating, pure fear rolling off her skin, and she knew that Kakistos would be able to smell it. He probably got off on it. He would find her. It was only a matter of time.

She had heard the sounds of laser fire in the distance. Fuck, how many people were there on Earth who knew how laser fire sounded? Probably not a whole lot, that was for sure. Her life had really become even stranger than before. Too bad it would be over soon, but at least it sounded like Arcee was making short work of whatever vampire minions Kakistos had left behind.

Maybe her friend would survive this night. It was the best she could hope for.

Cowering in the dark corner, she closed her eyes and tried to get her damn Slayer senses to work. Where was Kakistos? Was he close by? She had to know where he was.

* * *

Arcee scanned her surroundings, following an indecipherable compulsion that seemed to indicate Faith's location. The spark alignment at work again? So far it was proving far from reliable and most definitely unpredictable. Considering the dangerous enemy she was hunting, that was not a good thing.

The tactical analysis of the situation did not take long. Kakistos was obviously quite strong and fast, so the best method of taking him out would be with her weapon from a distance. No matter how fast he was, she doubted he could evade laser beams travelling at the speed of light. First, though, she had to find him.

Considering that her target's heat signature perfectly matched the surrounding environment, that was proving to be difficult. Motion trackers worked, but there was quite a bit of movement in the shadows, everything from rats to cats to some drunken homeless person she almost shot. She was also quite aware that, being taller than many of the buildings in this part of town, she would most definitely be easy to spot.

Quickly transforming back into her motorcycle mode, Arcee continued scanning the surroundings. She didn't bother with a driver hologram this time around, the disguise was up anyway. At least in this mode she didn't stick out as much.

There was still that prickle of awareness that showed the spark alignment with Faith was still active, yet it stubbornly refused to enhance her senses this time around. Was it because Faith herself was probably paralyzed by fear? Was she somehow blocking her own powers and Arcee's access to them at the same time? Slag, why couldn't this alignment behave like any other?

Keeping her focus on her surroundings, cross referencing programs brought up memory files from a similar situation she'd been in not too long ago.

* * *

Faith was doing her utmost to stay unnoticed while at the same time picking up her pursuer when suddenly strange images assaulted her mind. They flooded in like memories, but she was certain they weren't hers.

The floor beneath her feet was cold and metallic, a steel plain that stretched from horizon to horizon. The occasional building broke the monotony, most of them gutted ruins that looked like they'd been happily rusting away for centuries. The sky was dark and filled with strange stars, not a moon in sight. Yet somehow her vision was quite clear, picking up every detail.

Nova Cronum, that was the name of this place. Where did that knowledge come from? Nova Cronum, a once vibrant district of Cybertron, razed during millennia of warfare. Cybertron? Wasn't that Arcee's home planet? What was she doing seeing Arcee's memories?

There was a mission, she knew that. An important one. Optimus Prime was missing and Ultra Magnus wanted her to contact the remaining Autobot cells in Nova Cronum to aid in finding him. A patrol group of Decepticon Seekers had picked her up, though, and now a hunter-killer was on her tailpipe.

Emotions rippled through her. Desire to fulfil her mission. Tiredness of this endless war. Longing for peace and rest. And fear. Fear of the hunter-killers, who had snuffed the sparks of so many of her brethren. The Autobots were losing the war and there seemed to be nothing they could do to turn the tide.

She was running, metal feet hitting metal ground with machine precision. Transforming no longer worked, she had sustained wounds... damages. Her weapon was low on power, no more than a few shots left.

Suddenly there was movement to her left and before she knew what was happening something large and fast barrelled into her, sent her flying. She recovered, gyros working overtime to get her upright again, and her optics focused on the newcomer.

Hunter-Killer!

He was tall, at least twice her size, a gleaming monstrosity with the Decepticon crest emblazoned on his chest plate. There was a cruel gleam in his optics as he focused on her. Seeker model Decepticon, but extensively modified for his new duties. The null-ray cannons on his arms weren't pointing at her. Not yet, anyway.

"This is what I get?" he asked, chuckling. "A little fembot? I was hoping for a challenge."

The fear was almost paralyzing, but she managed to raise her weapon, squeeze off her final shots. The laser bolts impact against his thick armour, doing little damage. He did not even try to evade. He just took the shots, knowing they were her last. When her gun clicked empty his smile only grew.

"My turn," he whispered, raising his null-rays.

The first shot went wide, deliberately. She started running, but the second shot clipped her leg. The null ray immediately fused all her circuitry, causing the leg to go stiff. She stumbled, crashing to the ground again. There was no hope left. It was over.

"It's a pity you Autobots die so easily," he said, walking up slowly and lining his cannon up on her head. "Or I might get a sense of satisfaction out of this."

She closed her optics, praying to Primus to take her spark despite her failures. Suddenly there was new noise, though, and she opened her optics again just in time to see a fiery red shape spear the hunter-killer at full speed. Both robots tumbled over the ground and she needed a moment to identify her saviour.

"Hot Rod," she yelled, hope blossoming once again in her heart.

Shaking her head, Faith finally managed to throw off the memories. God, this spark thing was really going to be the death of her. This was the worst possible time to get a trip down memory lane from Arcee, not to mention that she had no intention of sharing her friend's memories to begin with.

Why had Arcee thought of this particular memory now? Well, the situation certainly seemed similar. On the run from a powerful foe, filled with fear, no hope left. Faith could certainly empathise with that.

Arcee had been saved, though. Someone called Hot Rod had come to aid her and she had survived, obviously.

Arcee was going to try and save her, Faith knew. And she would probably die trying. Damn it, that wasn't what she wanted. Arcee had to survive. Not another death because of her! Never again!

A crashing sound drew her attention. What was going on out there? She heard the sound of laser fire again, but it cut off abruptly. Then there was the unmistakable roar of Kakistos. And not one of pain.

Conscious thought ceased at that moment. Arcee was in danger. Her only remaining friend in this world was in danger. Fear for her own life was like a thick blanket threatening to smother her, but concern for her friend proved stronger, at least in that moment.

Faith took off running, not daring to stop and think.

**End Chapter 6**


	15. Autobot Meets Vampire, p7 of 7

**Author's Note **: So, the second storyline of A Slayer Transformed is almost done now, just an epilogue to go after this one. Hope you liked this as much as the first one. I'm definitely going to do a third arc for this story, but more reviews would most definitely help get me more motivated (hint!).

To answers some points from the reviews:

_Den Scurman _: Glad to hear I managed to suck you into BtVS, even if it's just for this story. As for Hot Rod, a few thousand years is pretty young for a Transformer. After all, Optimus Prime is at least nine million years old (at least in the G1 timeline) and he's not the oldest of his ilk by far.

_Sigma1 _: Hope you're better by now. If not, I hope this story soothes the pain at least a little bit.

_Harry2 _: You're gonna see more of Hot Rod eventually. Not just yet, though. As for Faith's fear of Kakistos, just read the chapter, you'll see how it develops.

And now, on with the show!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Faith vs. Kakistos, Round Two **

Arcee did not find Kakistos. He found her.

The ancient demon had noticed that the strange machine being had made quick work of his minions and was now following him, no doubt looking to protect the little Slayer he was hunting. That couldn't be allowed. As much as it pained him, it seemed he had to postpone his reunion with his Faith for the moment. The machine being needed to be taken care of first.

Kakistos looked like a hulking brute, but behind that façade lurked a very smart mind. One didn't get to be thousands of years old through stupidity. Most vampires, though immortal in theory, didn't last much longer than your average human lifespan. Most of them died stupidly, getting caught by sunlight, falling victim to an angry crowd, or hunted down by the Slayer. Kakistos, though, was not stupid.

Through short observation he had realized that the machine had trouble tracking him through anything but visual observation. It made sense. Kakistos didn't know much about current technology, but he did know that most forms of sensors and such were useless against his kind. No heat signature, nearly no bodily noises, nothing. So he stayed in the shadows and remained unmoving until the machine, now once again in its vehicular form, was nearly on top of him.

Then he struck.

* * *

Arcee did not find Kakistos. He found her.

She had been trying to track him, but the only real clue she had was that indefinable affinity that told her in what direction Faith had run off. She strained every sensor she had to the utmost, but they refused to help her. With the spark alignment curiously quiet, she had nothing but her optic sensors to rely on.

By the time they finally spotted Kakistos, it was almost too late. The vampire was upon her faster than she could react, that blinding speed of his once again at work. On instinct she transformed, her robotic form being stronger, tougher, and more agile than her vehicular one. Unfortunately the transformation process took precious moments.

By the time she was in robot mode and had her weapon ready Kakistos had closed the gap. She updated her estimation of his intelligence even as he struck her, for his first target was her laser rifle. She got off a single shot, but he was already too close and the laser pulse went wide. He barrelled right into her arm and his cloven hands crumbled the grip of her weapon, along with parts of her hand, like tissue paper. He roared in triumph.

Arcee was far from helpless, though. Even as damage alerts shrieked through her mind she reacted. Metal limbs moved almost as fast as the vampire, throwing him off before he could do further damage. Kakistos went flying through the air and impacted against the wall of a nearby building with enough force to pulverize brick.

He got up immediately, seemingly none the worse for wear. His clothing was ripped, but that was all Arcee had to show for her first blow. Analysis programs showed that her weapon was pretty much useless now. She would have to rely on her bodily strength. Both her hand units were damaged, but that did not impede their effectiveness as weapons much. No need for fine motor control when all you wanted to do was pummel your enemy into oblivion.

For a moment the two opponents faced each other eyes to optics, both trying to get a better measure of their foe. Both were inhumanely still, looking like statues, neither wasting energy on even the most insignificant motion.

Then, almost as if by some unseen signal, both moved.

* * *

Faith was running as fast as her legs would carry her, mostly so she could have no time left to think. What was she doing? Running toward this monster? What was she thinking? Shaking her head, she chased those thoughts away. It didn't much matter what happened to her. One Slayer died, another was called. Maybe someone who was better at it than she. But no one else would die on her watch. Never again.

There was a crashing sound again, flesh impacting against metal, and she followed the sound to its source. Skidding around a corner, she froze for a moment, in awe of the spectacle in front of her.

Faith had seen quite a few of the Autobots during her short stay in their headquarters. Arcee had been the smallest of them. She had shown some handiness with a laser rifle, but her close quarter combat abilities, at least judging by her showing against those portal demons, had been nothing to write home about. Especially in comparison to the big firetruck guy, Optimus Prime, who had ground demons into paste without much fuss once he got riled up enough.

Now Faith realized that she had seriously underestimated her friend. She had only seen that she was small (at least in comparison to the others of her kind) and hesitant about killing, both of which Faith had come to interpret as signs of weakness. Which was probably very short-sighted of her.

Right at this moment Arcee was going blow for blow with the monster that had haunted Faith's every moment for the last few weeks and she seemed to be holding her own. Kakistos was a fraction faster than her, it seemed, and his smaller stature enabled him to duck many of Arcee's blows. The Autobot, in turn, moved with a fluid grace and utmost precision, and actually seemed to be getting better and better with every passing second.

Adaptive battle computer,' something seemed to whisper to her. Constantly analyzes an opponent during the struggle, updating all combat routines on the fly to improve combat efficiency.'

As if to prove the whispers right, Arcee managed to land a thundering blow on Kakistos. The ancient demon staggered, the pavement under his feet actually cracking from the force of the impact. He did not go down, though, and barely slowed down. He was bleeding from the mouth and most of his clothing was in tatters, but that only made him seem more dangerous.

Arcee had sustained her own fair share of licks. Several portions of her metallic hide were seriously dented. Her hands looked damaged, she was mostly using them as clubs. There was a portion on her chest were the armour was partially ripped away, exposing some of her innards. All of which seemed to do little to slow her down.

Faith shook her head. This was no time to stand in awe of her friend's capabilities. She was holding her own for now, but the battle seemed to be going nowhere fast and Arcee took more hits than Kakistos. She couldn't just stand around and do nothing while her friend was killed inch by inch.

Besides, seeing Kakistos getting pummelled made something inside her loosen. The knot of fear that had sat deep in her belly and grown tighter and tighter with every moment she was on the run... it didn't seem quite so tight anymore. Kakistos was bleeding. He could be hurt. Maybe... maybe he could even be killed.

Faith doubted she would ever be given a better chance to find out.

She had no weapon handy. Ty, the Autobot's main computer, had given her a backpack full of goodies, but they were all back in her room. No time to get them. She had to improvise. Looking around, she saw a metal pipe. Not exactly the Vampire Slayer's weapon of choice, but for now it would have to do.

Grabbing the metal rod, she ran toward the battle.

* * *

Kakistos was so focused on the battle against the machine, who was proving to be quite the formidable opponent, that he didn't notice the new arrival until it was too late. The attack was all the more devastating because the ancient demon would never expected it to hail from this source. His sweet little Faith was running scared. Her taking out his eye had been a fluke, nothing else. How come she was attacking now?

The Slayer swung the metal pipe with enough force to decapitate a human being and it hit the side of his head with thundering force. Instinct alone made him roll with the impact, which also allowed him to evade the follow-up punch by the machine, which might have incapacitated him for good had it connected. Getting back to his feet, he was greeted with a most unusual sight.

He was facing the Vampire Slayer. Not a scared little girl, but the Vampire Slayer. He could see it in her eyes. Oh, there was still fear there, quite a bit of it. He could smell it rolling off her skin. Right now, though, that fear was secondary to her fury.

"No more," she growled at him. "You won't kill any more of my friends!"

Kakistos narrowed his eyes. She thought of this being as a friend? Curious. Still, it seemed that threatening those she regarded as friends did more to fire her up than any danger to her own life ever could.

The machine seemed to wait for Faith to make the next step. Kakistos focused his attention on her. The metal pipe she was holding was not a lethal weapon in regards to a vampire, but enough blows like that first one would leave him in no state to defend himself from a stake or a decapitation.

He quickly assessed the situation. The machine was damaged, but still battle worthy. The Slayer was unhurt and furious. Common sense told him to withdraw and fight another day. But no, that wouldn't do. Faith had built up such wonderful fear and terror over the last few weeks. If she saw him run now, it would evaporate. Killing her would not bring him a tenth of the satisfaction then. He would have to start from scratch.

The decision was made within a heartbeat (not his own, of course) and Kakistos moved on the offensive once again.

* * *

Arcee was both surprised and somewhat relieved to see Faith arrive on the scene. Relieved both because she had been far from certain she could win this fight and because it might mean that Faith was slowly overcoming her mortal fear of this creature. So when Kakistos retreated a few steps, Arcee waited, allowing Faith to take the lead.

"No more," Faith growled at him. "You won't kill any more of my friends!"

Arcee managed to suppress a smile. She liked how that sounded.

Kakistos attacked again, though. He was no longer quite so blindingly fast -battle fatigue had to be getting to him, too- but he was still extremely dangerous. He tried to run right over Faith, who moved aside and tried to hit him with the pipe again, but missed as well. Kakistos made no move to change direction, barrelling directly toward Arcee. She managed to jump aside as well an tried to hit the demon with a kick, but he ducked in time.

The battle turned into a dizzyingly fast combination of strikes, counter strikes, blocks, and evasions. Kakistos clearly had no intention of surrendering of withdrawing, despite the odds against him. Faith wasn't as good as Arcee had seen her, the fear still very much present and inhibiting her. Also, Faith and Arcee weren't cooperating very well, the Slayer running on instinct. Taking a risk, Arcee tried to access the spark alignment again.

The connection between them was not as strong as before, but it came to life. Arcee could feel the terror still having a grip on her human friend, though it was not as tight as a few minutes ago. The Slayer had come awake once more. Arcee could see Faith's motions and attacks becoming more fluid and concentrated as her own experience and focus flooded across the bond. At the same time her own senses expanded once again, her battle computer immediately devouring the new data to update her combat routines.

Slowly the battle began to turn against Kakistos. When he moved to duck one of Faith's blows, Arcee was there to catch him with one of hers. When he caught one of them with an attack, he immediately paid for it at the hands of the other. As the battle progressed the spark alignment became more and more solid, Faith's fear fading with every successful blow she landed on the monster of her nightmares.

Then it was over. Arcee landed a kick that sent Kakistos flying right through a brick wall, the entire small building coming down on top of him. Thankfully the building had been condemned already. Once the dust settled there was no movement underneath the rubble.

Faith was breathing hard, her body shaking with fear, adrenalin, and exhaustion. Arcee could feel it across the alignment, though. Her friend was very much relieved and almost ecstatic.

"We beat him," she whispered, her voice tinged with disbelief. "We actually beat him."

"Yeah, we did," Arcee said, carefully putting one of her damaged hands on Faith's small shoulder.

For a long moment the two of them just observed the mountain of debris that had buried their enemy, then Faith sighed.

"We still need to dig him out, though. Unless we got lucky and some wooden beam staked him, the bastard's still alive down there."

Arcee looked at her mangled hands. "Just great! And here I thought the work was done for tonight."

Faith managed a laugh. "Why don't you call some of your Autobot buddies to do the heavy lifting?"

Thinking for a moment, Arcee nodded. "Yeah, good idea. Let the boys show off their muscles. We already did the hard part."

Arcee activated her communicator, sharing a smile with a very relieved Vampire Slayer.

**TO BE CONCLUDED**


	16. Autobot Meets Vampire, Epilogue

**Author's Note**: This concludes the second story arc and in the next one we're off to Sunnydale. Of course a few more reviews would help get it underway faster, ;-)

_Harry2_: Solar destruction for Kakistos? Well, you'll see in this very chapter. And we are off to Sunnydale next.

_The Sithspawn_: Arce and Faith sure are a great team. Now if only they could get this spark alignment thing to work whenever they want it to and keep it shut down all the other times...

_Sigma1_: Hope I can brighten yet another day for you.

And now, on with the show!

* * *

**Epilogue: Where to Go Next **

Are you okay? Arcee asked.

They were back in Autobase. Arcee had gotten her damages fixed up, no sign of the battle with Kakistos to be found on her now. Faith, too, had taken some licks, but her accelerated healing powers had handled those all on by themselves. What bruises remained would be gone come tomorrow.

Gone like Kakistos.

Firetruck guy had sent three Autobots to help dig out Kakistos, the three so-called Brothers. X-Brawn, Sideburn, and Prowl, all of whom she had met briefly during the demon siege on Autobase. The towering robots had removed the rubble in record time. Unfortunately all they had found was an open sewer access and no sign of their foe. Kakistos had escaped.

Am I okay? Faith repeated Arcee's question, knowing that the Autobot was not asking about the state of her physical wounds. I don't know, biker girl. I really don't know.

Arcee squatted down beside her, putting them almost at equal height.

You defeated him, the Autobot said. And more importantly, you overcame your fear of him.

But he's still out there.

Yes he is. And somehow I think it won't take that long until we meet him again. But now you know he can be beat.

Faith sighed. I don't know what to feel, biker girl. I should feel pissed that he got away, that I didn't get him for what he did to Clarice. Or maybe I should feel scared that he's going to come after me again. She shrugged. Right now, though, all I feel is tired. And... I don't know. Lighter, somehow.

Arcee nodded. You saw some of my memories earlier, right?

I didn't intend to, it just...

I know, Faith. Our spark alignment remains very unpredictable, I'm afraid. Anyway, you saw me face the hunter-killers on Cybertron, right? Could you tell how scared I was?

Faith looked at her. Yeah, I could. Then you were rescued by that guy, though. Hot something?

Arcee smiled. Hot Rod. He saved my skid plate back then. Took down that Decepticreep that almost got me. I faced other hunter-killers later on, but I was never as afraid of them as before. Because a good friend had shown me that they were not unbeatable. Oh, I knew I could still die, but the fear was... manageable now. I could handle it.

Faith turned her eyes down. I don't know whether I can handle it now or not, biker girl.

I think you can, Faith. Fear can be a good thing; you just need to learn to control it instead of letting it control you. Then your fear can be a powerful weapon, like fear for a friend was today.

Looking up, Faith smirked at her. You sound really old when you spout words of wisdom like that, biker girl. Clashes with your exterior.

Arcee straightened up in mock indignity. I'll have you know, little human, that I am more than ten thousand of your years old. Young things like you should bow to the wisdom of your elders.

Faith giggled. Drop it, okay? If you want to be taken seriously as a wise elder, you need to get rid of the pink in your hide.

The two friends bickered some more, but then returned to serious topics.

So have you decided where to go next? Arcee asked.

Looking thoughtful, Faith nodded. Yeah. There is something I should... need to do. I don't know if Clarice had any family, but at the very least the Watchers should be told that she died. And how. I owe it to her.

Standing up, Faith zipped up her biker jacket and stretched.

Buckle up, biker girl. Next stop, Sunnydale.

* * *

Optimus Prime watched the interplay between the human and his Autobot for a while and then decided to leave them to their privacy for now. He would talk with Arcee before she left.

Once again calling up her report, he studied her description of the demonic species known as vampires. Very strong, at least the older ones. Vicious, bloodthirsty, absolutely no qualms about killing. She had also detailed her analysis of them, especially with her sensors enhanced by the spark alignment.

These creatures seemed to possess no sparks as such. Which meant they certainly were not human, despite their outer appearance. The energy that animated them was completely invisible to Cybertronian technology and even with her sensors enhanced Arcee could not make much sense of it.

To Optimus the most interesting question of all was whether the lack of a spark meant that these creatures were not truly alive. They were certainly sentient, but alive? Arcee had been forced to kill a few of them, something she regretted but did not apologize for. It had been necessary and Optimus found no reason to dispute her on this.

Still, Faith insisted that killing these creatures was the only way to deal with them. Was this true? The Cybertronians had encountered a myriad of life forms in their long, long history. Being shape shifters, they had learned early on that outer appearances meant little. What mattered was the spark, the life force. That was what every Autobot was taught, what he believed, what he held sacred.

These creatures, though, they were a puzzle. No spark, yet apparently alive and most certainly sentient. This was unprecedented as far as Optimus knew. Was this strange energy that animated them something like a spark, just so different and alien that it could not be recognized as such? Or was it something different altogether? Something that bestowed a semblance of life, but not the real thing?

Optimus Prime was neither a philosopher nor a theologian, but he found that he needed an answer to that question. For his own peace of mind, if nothing else.

* * *

The darkness was thick and vibrant, much more than simple absence of light. It moved, it breathed, and was slowly clawing its way upwards. The chains holding it in place burned like fire, but the darkness had long since stopped paying any sort of attention to this pain.

It was dead, but even in death it was strong. It slept, but it was also wide awake. Its dreams held more power than any living mind and once it awoke it would devour the world. But for now it was dead and sleeping, dreaming of the day it would be alive and awake once more.

The darkness coiled, malicious power rippling as it moved in its death-slumber. Already its influence had spread into the stain that was the world. Already there were weak-minded fools doing its bidding, whether they knew it or not. It made no difference to the darkness.

Soon it would be alive. Soon it would be awake. Soon it would be free. Soon.

**END EPISODE TWO**

* * *

**Next time on A Slayer Transformed: **

Arcee and Faith hit the town of Sunnydale to go looking for a Watcher. What they find is another Slayer, more demons than you can shake a laser rifle at, and something that looks very much like a buried space ship. Tune in for  **Enter Sunnydale **, the next exciting episode of  **A Slayer Transformed **.


	17. Enter Sunnydale, p1 of 7

**A Slayer Transformed: Enter Sunnydale  
**by Philip S.  
Rating: PG-13

**Author's Note **: Welcome to the third story arc of "A Slayer Transformed". We are finally hitting Sunnydale. Faith and her new friend Arcee will encounter the Scooby Gang. And a little warning right at the get-go: All readers who think of Buffy as a holy saint who can do no wrong will probably not like some parts of this episode. It's not Buffy-bashing, but it's not exactly Buffy-worship, either. And to address some of the last reviews:

_Harry2:_ Will Buffy treat Faith like dirt? Well, we'll see. Let's just say that their relationship in this story will be nothing like it was in the show.

_The Sithspawn_: Giles and the Scoobies will certainly be intrigued by Arcee. If they find out about her, that is. Faith might play things close to her chest, you know?

_Sigma1_: Still cold? Still dismal? Still rainy? Well, I hope this part helps things along a bit.

_Allen Pitt_: The Scoobies certainly have some issues in regard to insecurity and jealousy. How will a more confident and secure Faith affect them and be affected in return? Only time will tell. It won't go as it did in the show, certainly.

And now, on with the show:

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**Previously on _A Slayer Transformed _: **

Faith is the Vampire Slayer, Earth's chosen defender against the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. Arcee is an Autobot, member of an alien race of mechanoid shapeshifters, who have come to Earth to defend it against their enemies, the Predacons. When Faith came to the rescue of Arcee's commander Optimus Prime she was gravely wounded and the only way to save her was to link their sparks, the Autobot term for soul.

Faith was saved, but the spark link led to a phenomenon called spark alignment, a permanent connection between Faith and Arcee. Realizing that the Autobots need to learn more about the supernatural in general and the strange link between Faith and Arcee in particular, he sends Arcee on an extended field mission to explore this strange new world alongside her new human friend.

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**Enter Sunnydale  
Chapter 1 of 7: Roaring Down the Highway **

A casual observer would have noticed little more than a blur as the sleek Japanese-style bullet bike sped down the highway towards the small town of Sunnydale. It was going way too fast for anyone to get a good look at the driver, either. Just a blurry shape in black, nothing more. The bike was pushing 300 miles per hour, no matter the speed limit, and by the time a lone Highway Patrolman even managed to get his car started the offending vehicle was already gone again.

Faith was having a blast. Driving motorcycles had always been fun for her, but never to this extent. It helped that the motorcycle in question was of alien origin and a living being to boot. Arcee was actually doing most of the driving, but that didn't much bother her. At speeds like this it was better to have a computer doing the steering. She didn't want to end up a bloody smear on the highway.

"Fast enough for you?" Arcee's voice rang out from the receiver in Faith's helmet.

"That the best you can do, biker girl?" Faith shouted back. "I'm barely even feeling any movement here."

Arcee laughed and accelerated further. If not for Faith's enhanced strength she would have been flung off the bike's saddle long ago. As it was she was holding on with just about her full strength. Man, this was fun!

At Arcee's speed the distance to Sunnydale, normally a two hour drive from LA, shrunk to nothing in no time flat. Much too soon for Faith's taste they had to decelerate and crossed the Sunnydale city limit at a leisury 55 miles per hour.

"This the place?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah! Clarice told me a lot about this town. Biggest centre of supernatural activity in the States, maybe the world. Not that you can tell from looking at it."

At first look Sunnydale was nothing special. A small suburban town like hundreds of others across the United States. The houses were well-kept, most of them even had white picket fences. Moments later they were cruising down what seemed to be the town's main and only shopping mile. It wasn't all that long and soon gave way to an industrial sector, which led down to the town's harbour.

"Not a lot to see," Arcee said. "Or is there?"

Faith had stopped checking the town with her eyes some time ago and focused on her other senses instead. Thanks to the spark alignment Arcee could have shared in her expanded awareness, but their connection had proven a bit unreliable so far. So they didn't use it unless necessary and certainly not when Arcee was busy concentrating on driving. She'd already had one traffic accident thanks to the alignment. That was enough for any one Autobot.

To Faith's senses the town felt decidedly not normal. Darkness had fallen about half an hour ago and just in the immediate vicinity Faith could pick up at least four or five supernatural presences. Added to that was an almost tangible air of menace that seemed to hang over the town like a dark cloud.

"Lots of bad vibes here, biker girl," Faith told her partner. "Clarice wasn't kidding. This burg really is demon central, I can tell that from here."

Faith could practically feel Arcee hum with unease beneath her. She knew that the Autobot still had a hard time accepting that the only sensible approach to demons was to kill them as fast as possible. Oh, granted, she had scored quite a few demon kills of her own already, but she would never be comfortable with it.

"Relax, biker girl," Faith just said. "We're not here to go on a hunting spree. Not yet, anyway."

The one and only reason she had come here was to visit one Ruper Giles, at this moment the only living representative the Council of Watchers had in America. Faith had repeatedly told Clarice, her own Watcher, that the Council should wise up and supply the Slayer with a cell phone and a contact number, just in case. No such luck. If Clarice was to be believed, the Council guys were still waiting for that whole telephone thing to finally blow over and go away. They probably didn't even know fax machines existed, not to mention e-mail.

Which meant that the only way for Faith to get in contact with the Council and let them know about Clarice's death was to find this Rupert Giles.

"Have you found his address?" she asked Arcee.

Earth computers were little more than an amusing antiquity for her Autobot friend, Faith had come to realize. Without any problems whatsoever Arcee had already hacked into the local telephone company and found all the info they needed.

"He lives in an apartment building just a few blocks away. We'll be there in a minute."

Faith nodded, still trying to figure out how she should approach this. Clarice had been an easy-going kind of gal. She had told her a lot about the Watchers, though, and had always made them sound kind of old-fashioned and stiff. She didn't know how this Rupert Giles would react to her or the news of Clarice's death.

Well, seeing as Faith couldn't lie for shit and wasn't one for subtlety, either, she'd best approach this in her usual direct manner.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted, though, when they rounded a corner.

"Stop for a moment, biker girl," she yelled, instinctively putting her feet down into the brakes. That had zero effect, of course, but Arcee did as she had asked and came to a stop.

"What is it?"

Faith's senses spread out into the darkness. Ever since the spark alignment, ever since she had gotten a taste of the true extent of the Slayer's power, it had gotten easier for her to access her abilities. The Slayer was a primal force of nature, a power that adapted to every foe and all odds. It was only a matter of focus and discipline, things she had always been short of and was still somewhat lacking. Thanks to the cold, machine-like professionalism of her robotic partner, she had gotten a lot better at it.

The road to the right of them was a blind alley, only a few houses left and right and nothing but forest beyond it. And somewhere at the very edge of that forest she could pick up no less than six vampires. And... something else. Something achingly familiar, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. What she could clearly sense, though, was the presence of three human beings right in the middle of the vampires.

"Vamp trouble," Faith just said. "We need to make a detour."

Arcee made no protest. Faith and her had come to a kind of understanding when it came to hunting demons. Arcee would not protest Faith's use of lethal force and Faith would not reprimand Arcee for holding back should she get involved in a demon battle. And Arcee would only get involved if it was absolutely necessary.

The bike sped down the road Faith had indicated, directly toward the vampires. Now Faith's ears could pick up the sounds of a struggle. Were the victims putting up resistance?

The road ended and Arcee kept right on going. You couldn't tell from the looks of her vehicle form, but the sleek Japanese-style bullet bike had absolutely no problem driving in rough terrain. So it took but another few seconds until they came upon the scene in question.

Hitting the brakes, Arcee came to a stop. Faith was off in a heartbeat, but froze upon seeing the scene. Six vampires, as she had sensed. Three human beings, too. A red-haired girl, a dark-haired boy, and another girl, this one blonde. Only it seemed her theory of helpless victims had been kind of wrong, at least as far as the blonde was concerned. She was kicking vampire ass to the best of her ability, and that was plenty.

"Faith," Arcee's voice came over the mike. "The way she's fighting..."

"Yeah, I see it," Faith cut her off. Clarice had once mentioned something about there being a second Slayer, a girl who had died, but then been revived. Faith hadn't quite bought it, but right here was the proof. No other being, human or demonic, fought like a Slayer.

Still, she was outnumbered six to one and the two other kids, while obviously trying to help, weren't doing that much good. Taking but a moment to take off her helmet and retrieve one of the toys Ty -the Autobot's sentient computer- had created for her, she jumped into the fray.

This kind of welcome was more her style anyway.

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Somewhere deep underneath Sunnydale something stirred to life. It had been here, dormant, for longer than human civilisation had existed. Created for a single purpose, it had come here and waited with infinite patience. Time meant nothing to it. It would wait until the stars winked out if necessary.

Something had changed, though. Its creators had known that some day their enemies might come to this place. Enemies that wanted to pervert the great cause and derive the creators of their destiny. This could not be allowed, so certain failsafe measures had been created as well.

Now one such failsafe had activated. The presence of one of the enemy had been detected. It had come here, no doubt to ruin everything. And so the sleeper had to awake. It had to make sure that the find would remain secure until the creators came.

Ancient machinery sprung to life and a great shape rose from its dusty grave. Steel muscles stretched, servos whirred, Energon began to pump. Slowly, deliberately, the great thing started making its way toward the surface.

**End Chapter 1**


	18. Enter Sunnydale, p2 of 7

**Author's Note**: A lot of people have speculated what exactly it is that awoke beneath Sunnydale. A Cybertronian, certainly. But Decepticon? Predacon? Autobot? Something else altogether? You will find out soon, but not just yet. And it's certainly going to be trouble. 

_Sigma1 _: At least it's warm and sunny now (still is, I hope). But if you're still sick, shouldn't you go to the doctor's? It's been some time now.

_Allen Pit _: You will see what difference Arcee's presence makes for Faith and her standing in Sunnydale. It will go quite a bit differently than in canon, that much is for sure.

And now, on with the show:

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**Chapter 2: Slayer Meets Slayer **

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Mopping up the vampires didn't take all that long. They all seemed to be newbies, consumed by hunger and not really having much in the way of combat skills. They were still super strong, sure, but that wasn't enough against two Slayers.

Faith took the opportunity to measure the blonde girl fighting by her side. At first she'd hesitated when Faith had jumped into the fight, but seeing her moves, she had quickly adapted. Now they fought back to back as if they'd never done anything else. It was a bit unsettling, yet strangely exhilarating at the same time.

There was something else, though. Ever since the spark alignment Faith had gotten a much better understanding of what the Slayer was and how it worked inside of her. Much of what Clarice had said about trusting her instincts, going with the flow and such, now made much more sense. The Slayer was like a sentient force and the more she tapped into it, the more she gave herself to it, the stronger she became.

The blonde girl, though, was feeling different. There was power rolling off her skin, lots of it, but it seemed... mismatched. If she had been forced to put her feelings into words, Faith would have said that the blonde wielded a really big club (maybe even a bit bigger than her own), but the handle of it didn't quite fit her hand. It was almost as if the girl wasn't at all comfortable with the power she was using.

Faith filed that detail away for later. Before long the battle ended, the last vampire exploding into dust. Faith noted that Arcee was still in motorcycle form and not doing anything that might point out her rather alien nature. Best to leave things at that for the moment.

For a long moment no one said anything. Faith gave a quick look to the two kids who had been with the blonde girl. They had tried their best to help, but mostly been content to stay out of the way. The redhead gave off a bit of a vibe, but nothing major. There was nothing coming off the boy.

She looked at the blonde again.

"So I'm guessing you're also a Slayer?" she just said with her best shit-eating grin.

The blonde seemed to be busy measuring her, then finally nodded.

"And so are you, right?"

"Yeah. I'm Faith, by the way. You are?"

"Buffy," she said. Faith could barely suppress a smart-ass remark, but the look on the blonde's face told her that she was well-versed to people making fun of her name and didn't like it in the least. Well, it didn't pay to make enemies during her first hour in town.

"Okay, B," she said, unable to bring herself to say 'Buffy' without exploding into laughter. "I just rolled into town to look up a Watcher called Giles. He wouldn't happen to be yours, would he?"

"Figures," she heard the boy mutter under his breath. "A really hot girl rolls into town and all she wants is the stuffy Brit."

Smirking, she gave him a look. "I don't really go for stuffy Brits," she told him. "I usually like my guys tall, brunette, and broad-chested." At his astonished look she added, "Slayers have enhanced hearing, you know?"

While the boy was still stuttering, the redhead came forward. "Hi, I'm Willow and he's Xander. So you're another Slayer, right? What brings you to town? Did the Council send you here? They really needn't have, you know? Buffy is back to take over things again and we're all just fine with that. Not that we'd say no to having another Slayer here to help with things, more help never hurts. With all the things here..."

"Breathe, Willow," Buffy told her.

"Wow," Faith just said. "Information overload?"

"That's just the way she is," Buffy shrugged. "So... why do you want to see Giles?"

Faith felt her good mood fading and apparently it showed on her face. Before anyone could say anything, she waved it off. "Just some stuff. I was about to head toward his apartment when I got a whiff of your fight. Thought I'd jump in to lend a hand."

"It wasn't really needed, but thanks anyway."

The two Slayers just looked at each other, neither a hundred percent certain what to make of the other.

"Let's go see Giles, shall we?" Buffy finally said.

"Lead on, B!"

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Rupert Giles was a man in his late forties to early fifties and not all that bad-looking for an old guy. His hair was starting to get thin in places and for some reason he seemed to think that wearing tweed was a good thing, but apart from that Faith found little to complain about.

He also seemed very relieved to see her.

"I'm glad to see you're alive, Faith," he greeted her once she had introduced herself. "When I heard about Clarice, I feared the worst."

"Clarice?" Buffy asked? "Who is Clarice?"

The blonde Slayer and her friends, Willow and Xander, had accompanied her to Giles' apartment and apparently intended to listen in on the conversation.

"Should they be here?" Faith asked, indicating the two kids. "I mean, Clarice always said that this whole Slayer thing was a big secret and stuff."

"Hey, we can keep secrets," Willow protested. "We have kept secrets ever since we found out about Buffy. We are so good at secrets."

"Willow and Xander have indeed aided Buffy for quite some time," Giles explained. "They know about her being the Slayer and what goes on here at the Hellmouth."

"I'd like to know what is going on right now," Buffy reminded him.

Faith was about to snap at her, but reigned herself in. She could feel a slight tingling in that part of her mind she had come to associate with the spark alignment. If she stretched her senses, she could almost feel Arcee's presence on the other side. It seemed the Autobot was listening in. Not that Faith minded. If she'd been able to think of a good enough explanation she'd have wheeled Arcee inside.

Giles looked at her, then seemed to come to a decision.

"Faith is the Slayer called after Kendra's death," he explained. Faith didn't know anyone named Kendra, but apparently the people present did. "She was assigned a Watcher named Clarice Chapel. A few days ago I was informed by the Boston authorities that Ms. Chapel had been killed. No one could tell me what had become of you." He directed that last bit at her.

Faith felt a bit uncomfortable sharing her story with so many people at once, but decided to get it over with.

"Clarice... I mean, Ms. Chapel was killed by a vampire called Kakistos."

Giles paled a bit.

"I see you heard of him," Faith added with a non-humorous smile.

"Kakistos?" Buffy asked.

"An ancient vampire," Giles explained. "Some of the texts say that he is even more powerful than the Master was."

That seemed to impress the hell out of everyone present. Faith didn't know who the Master was, but found that she didn't much care right now.

"During our fight I managed to hurt him," Faith continued, "but... he was too strong. I... had to run." Admitting that didn't come easily, but feeling Arcee's presence across the link helped quite a bit. There was no shame in surviving to fight another day, she seemed to say. They couldn't exactly talk over their link, but getting impressions across was getting easier with every passing day.

"What happened then?" Willow asked, the redhead practically radiating sympathy. Faith wasn't sure yet whether she liked that or was put off by it.

"I... well, I was on my way here. Figured that I should contact the Watchers and since the stuffy Brits never thought to give me a phone number or anything...," she gave Giles a look, which made the Englishman fidget a little, "I only knew to come to Sunnydale.

"Kakistos caught up with me, though. Bastard just didn't know when to quit. We fought again and... well, I did a bit better that time. Sent him running. He's still out there, though. Will probably come after me again."

Giles nodded. "That is safe to assume. Kakistos has made something of a career out of going after Slayers."

"You mean like Spike?" Willow asked.

"Much worse than that, Willow. If the records can be believed Kakistos has killed over two dozen Slayers in the last thousand years."

Dead silence greeted that announcement. Apparently Giles did not believe in sugar-coating things for his Slayer, Faith mused. Well, good for him. At first Clarice had been a bit hesitant about sharing all information with her, but Faith had cured of her that pretty quickly. Which only made it that much more painful that Clarice was gone now.

"Well, the bastard should just show his face around here," Xander said to break the silence. "Here on Hellmouth we eat Master Vampires like him for breakfast."

"We?" Buffy asked with a smile on her face.

"Okay, the Buffster eats him for breakfast. The rest of us just cheer her on."

Faith was somewhat amazed that this other Slayer seemed to actually involve these kids in the fight. Then again, hadn't she learned just recently that fighting alone was the best way to get yourself killed fast? Once again she felt assured by the presence of Arcee in her mind.

"I will inform the Council on how Ms. Chapel died," Giles said, a thankful smile directed at Faith. "I will make certain she is remembered with honour, Faith."

"Do that, G," she said. "Clarice was the best."

"You should stay here in Sunnydale for the time being, Faith," he continued. "If it's true that Kakistos is still after you, two Slayers working together should be the best way to confront him. Also, the Council will want to assign a new Watcher to you."

Faith stiffened at hearing that second part. A new Watcher? She hadn't even thought about that so far and wasn't to keen on the idea now that she did. It wasn't just that she didn't particularly care to have anyone replace Clarice, but there was also that little matter about being linked to an alien robot. How could she work with a new Watcher without bringing that up?

Best way would be to avoid getting a new Watcher. With Arcee by her side she really didn't see the need to have one. In her short time with the Autobot she had learned more about what it meant to be the Slayer than during the whole year Clarice had taught her. Not to put down Clarice, she'd been the greatest, but lectures and old books were no match against being spark aligned with an alien robot.

She needed to think this over. There had to be some way to get out of getting a new Watcher. Well, if all else failed she could just take off. Let's see them catch her while she was riding a bike that could do more than 300 miles per hour and had access to a funky teleportation network.

"Sure thing, G," she finally said. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm dead tired. I'll check into a motel somewhere and look you up tomorrow."

Giles quickly shook his head. "That is out of the question, Faith. Apart from the fact that a motel is not a safe place to be when vampires are around, I will certainly not have any Slayer sleep in a flee-infested garbage heap." Seeing the looks on the faces of the others, he added, "I have some experience with the motels in this town. Took me a while to find an apartment when I first moved here."

He looked at her. "Faith, you will stay in my guest bedroom for the duration."

She felt like making some kind of comment regarding the inappropriateness of a young girl staying with an elderly man, but squashed that impulse. Didn't really feel appropriate after just talking about Clarice. Who said she had no tact?

"Okay, fine. But I hope you don't hog the covers, G."

Okay, maybe she didn't have much tact, but a little. She could have come up with something much worse than that.

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**End Chapter 2**


	19. Enter Sunnydale, p3 of 7

**Author's Note**: Just a brief warning that parts of this chapter might come off a bit negative in regards to Buffy. This is by no means Buffy-bashing, as I've seen it called, but rather a point of view. Remember that this story is told from Arcee and Faith's point of view and that Buffy is seen with the eyes of a professional soldier and someone for whom being the Slayer is her whole life. Just something to keep in mind when reading this chapter.

_Den Scurman and Jade Eye's _: No, it's not Rampage. I liked Beast Wars a lot, but it will not have an impact on this story here. Keep guessing!

_Harry2 _: As far as Faith is concerned none of the Scoobies need to know about Arcee, not even Buffy or Giles. Whether it's going to go that way, well, you'll see.

_Sigma1 _: No Scooby reaction to Arcee in this chapter. You'll have to wait a bit longer, I'm afraid.

_Allen Pitt _: Faith isn't planning to stick around long, so whatever plans Giles has for her need to take that into account. As for becoming friends with the Scoobs, well, it won't be easy. See this chapter for a rocky start.

And now, on with the show:

* * *

**Chapter 3: Do Not Disturb **

To Faith's utter amazement Buffy left with a comment on making another short round through the cemeteries, then going to bed. It was barely ten in the evening. Didn't this girl realize that night was when Slayers were at their best? She kept her mouth shut for once, though. She didn't plan on staying in this town and the less she got involved in matters here the better.

Even more amazing was that Giles had apparently taken her earlier comment about being dead tired at face value, expecting her to go to sleep now. What kind of Watcher was he? There were vampires on the loose out there, probably more than in any other place in the world. And he sent a Slayer off to bed? They sure did things differently here.

Seeing as she didn't have the duty of patrolling here, Faith actually did try to get some nightly sleep for once. She failed miserably. The short vampire fight earlier had wound her up and she was so used to being up at night and sleeping during the day that she couldn't find any rest while it was dark outside. So she snuck out the apartment some minutes after she heard G go to bed and met up with Arcee outside.

"I was beginning to think you'd actually sleep," the Autobot said, still in motorcycle form.

"Nah, not my style. I tell you, this is one strange town, though."

"I didn't know what to expect, really, but so far it's actually... well, just strange."

Faith nodded, quickly straddling the bike. Arcee got them moving at a slow pace down Sunnydale's roads. Even without talking Arcee knew that Faith would want to get another look at the place and feel it out with her supernatural senses. The spark alignment between them was at a low ebb, just enough for Arcee to get some vague impressions from Faith. Those told her quite a bit, though.

"This town is giving off energy like crazy," Arcee said. "It still amazes me that I can not pick up any of it on my normal sensors."

"That's magic for you," Faith shrugged. "I have to admit, though, I've never been in a place that gave off vibes this bad. I wonder how B can sleep at night."

Arcee was going over some of the data she had picked up during the short vampire fight earlier tonight. The spark alignment had been quiet during the scuffle, but Cybertronians were nothing if not adaptive. She was getting much better at interpreting data from her normal sensors in supernatural terms.

"That other Slayer, Buffy," she began. "She seemed... off to me."

"I got the same vibes," Faith admitted. "It's like... I don't know, like she hates fighting."

"I would love to get a really good look at her through your senses," Arcee told her. "I only have you as a baseline to judge other Slayers by, but still..."

"You'd like to see how I measure up against her?"

"The other way around, actually."

Faith laughed. When first laying eyes on B she had felt... pissed, at least a little bit. This whole thing about being the Slayer, being the only one able to defend the world, was the best thing that had ever happened to her, even with all the pain it had brought with it. To find out that she wasn't the only one after all... well, she had felt robbed somehow. But only for a short time.

Faith was quite aware that, ever since meeting Arcee, she had changed quite a bit. The spark alignment was obviously doing more than allowing them to share senses now and then. Just as it allowed Arcee to expand herself into a realm she'd never been built for, it also seemed to make Faith more... she didn't know what word to use, but she felt more... adult. Grounded. Balanced. Mature. It was a good feeling.

One thing that still made her feel a bit funny, though, was the thought that B might actually not appreciate what she'd been given. Okay, maybe she was jumping to conclusions, but still...

"I need to find some trouble," she finally told Arcee. "All this deep thinking is making my head hurt."

"Yes, I have learned that your CPU wasn't designed for such activities," Arcee joked. "We don't want you to overheat."

"Ha! Ha! Ha! The alien biker girl with the ten million dollar computer for a brain made a funny."

"On Cybertron we don't use money, but my brain would be worth much more than that, young fleshling!"

Both laughed. It was getting easier and easier to get along with Arcee, Faith mused. Maybe helping out a talking fire truck against a horde of demons and getting sliced up in the process hadn't been the dumbest move of her life after all.

They were driving past a cemetery (and just how many of those did this town have?) when Faith's radar went off. Arcee could feel it through the alignment, which was starting to get stronger. She still hadn't figured out rhyme or reason why the link between them was so strong at some times and impossible to activate at other times. It seemed to correspond somewhat with the amount of trouble they were finding themselves in, but that was rather unscientific.

"Vamp trouble," Faith just said, hopping off Arcee and taking off at a run.

Arcee briefly considered staying here to wait, but then decided against it. If the activity of their alignment was really some kind of indicator for the amount of trouble ahead, then Faith was about to face something worse than six newly risen vampires. So Arcee took a moment to activate her driver hologram (choosing a young Dennis Hopper this time) and followed her into the cemetery.

Faith was on autopilot. Had she been an Autobot Arcee would have said that her combat subroutines were now fully online and guiding her actions. It was much the same, actually. Arcee followed her at a distance. She would only interfere if it looked like Faith couldn't handle it on her own.

In the centre of the cemetery Faith found her prey. There were eight vampires, standing in a circle around a demon. The demon looked like a cross between the Incredible Hulk and Conan the Barbarian, complete with broadsword. There was also some stuff lying around that just screamed 'demonic ritual' to Faith, which was never a good thing.

"Slayer," the demon hissed, recognizing her. "You will not stop us! We will..."

"Yeah, yeah! I know! You'll kill me, destroy the world, fuck over the gods, whatever. Can we get to the part where I kill you all?"

Arcee watched as Faith waded into the fray. Just like in the earlier battle she only used one of the little toys Ty had made for her, this one a sword made from Cybertronian battle alloy, carrying a monofilament edge. Nothing short of a force field could stop it. The vampires died in rapid succession.

"There are sure a lot of you around here," Faith told them during the battle. "Pity you aren't any tougher."

Arcee studied her as she fought, as well as the data streaming in across their link. Comparative analysis showed something she had suspected before. The Slayer actually seemed to get stronger the more opponents she faced. The adaptive nature of the force that empowered Faith in evidence once again. To a casual observer it would have seemed as if Faith was randomly moving this way and that, but Arcee could discern the intricate tactical thinking behind it, taking out opponents in the most efficient order possible. She doubted Faith was actually aware of it. It was all instinct to her.

There were only two vampires and the big demon left when the second Slayer arrived at the scene.

"I should be offended," Buffy said. "Here you are in my town, holding a party without me."

"Sorry," Faith just quipped back. "Watchers never gave me a mobile."

Arcee observed as Faith instinctively integrated the newly arrived ally into her tactics. Though neither girl seemed aware of it, they almost flawlessly cooperated. First they took out the remaining vampires, then turned on the demon. The battle against him was harder, they took a few blows of their own, but in the end Buffy brought him down and Faith decapitated him with her sword.

There was more interesting data to be analyzed, though. Thanks to the spark alignment Arcee had gotten a good reading on Buffy this time. Her general power output was slightly stronger than Faith. Strength, speed, toughness, she was small percentages ahead in all of them. There was a big discrepancy, though, in what Arcee liked to call 'Flow of Battle'. As far as tactical awareness, strategy, and general efficiency went, Faith was doing significantly than Buffy.

"Two Slayers are better than one, it seems," Faith said, putting her sword away again. "That demon might have taken a lot more time otherwise."

"I'm glad I heard your battle on my way home," Buffy told her, dusting off. "I almost..."

"Way home?" Faith asked. "You're already finished with your patrol?"

"Yeah, why?" Buffy gave her a confused look.

"B, it's not even midnight yet. Seven more hours of darkness for the bad guys to fuck with the normal people. And you're going to sleep?"

Buffy obviously didn't get why Faith seemed so upset. "Sunnydale people know not to go out after dark, most of them anyway. Besides, I've got school tomorrow and..."

Faith just threw her hands up and turned away. "Fine, do it your way! I'm off!"

Buffy walked after her. "Why are you weirding out on me here? I'm sorry if I don't follow the patrol schedule from the Slayer handbook, but..."

"Look, B," Faith interrupted her. "I'm five by five, okay? If you are fine with doing it that way, okay. I'm not here to ruffle any feathers."

"'That way'? What do you mean, 'that way'?"

Faith sighed, torn. "Look! If Clarice told it right, you've been doing this longer than me. Fine! But you're treating being the Slayer like a part-time job. And that's crap!"

Now Buffy was the one to sigh. "Okay, I've heard that talk before from Kendra. I know all the lines. I know..."

"You obviously didn't get it the first time, then," Faith interrupted her again, getting more agitated. "I know being the Slayer sucks at times, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that there are evil fucks out there who get their jollies hurting innocent people. It's our job to stop them, good idea or not. And we don't work shifts!"

Buffy was getting angry as well now. "Look, 'F'! I know you've had it tough lately, but as you said, I've been doing this for a while. I saved the world! Twice! So I don't think I need some rookie telling me how to be the Slayer."

"Oh, all hail the conquering hero! You saved the world twice? Wicked cool! But how many people didn't you save because you were in bed early to be ready for fucking school?"

This obviously touched a nerve.

"Where do you get off...?"

Arcee was about to start thinking about some way to separate these two without giving away her alien nature when the ground began to shake. Both Slayers stopped yelling at each other, looking around in confusion. The ground shook again.

"Ground shaking," Buffy muttered. "This is never good!"

Before Faith could utter anything in reply a huge fist suddenly punched out of the ground, the resulting tremor taking both Slayers off their feet. Arcee watched in growing horror as a huge shape worked its way out of the ground, its metallic hide glinting in the moonlight.

She immediately spotted the purple crest it wore on its massive chest.

"Decepticons," Arcee swore. "This is never good, either!"

**End Chapter 3 **


	20. Enter Sunnydale, p4 of 7

**Chapter 4: Alien Robots in the Cemetery **

------------------

Faith looked up -waaaaay up- at the giant metal monstrosity that had burst free of the ground just seconds ago. Her argument with Buffy was already forgotten. She didn't yet know all that much about the alien species called the Transformers, but Arcee and Optimus Prime had told her enough to recognize the purple crest this robot wore on its chest.

A Decepticon. Meaning a bad guy. A ten meter tall, armoured robot bad guy.

The Decepticon was mostly blue and grey and looked more like a demon than any other Transformer she had seen so far. He had metal bat wings on his back, his fingers ended in claws, and his face had something like a metal beard on it. His eyes glowed an eerie red as he turned to look at her.

Completely forgetting about the presence of the other Slayer, Faith turned to Arcee.

"Biker girl, what is that thing?"

Arcee, for her part, was trying her best to overcome her shock and surprise. Her last few encounters with Decepticons had been relatively harmless. Most of those that remained were low on Energon and in disrepair these days. Not this one, though. His metal hide looked old and dirty, but cosmetics aside he seemed to be in perfect repair and Arcee's sensors quickly noted that his energy output seemed to be at optimal levels.

She also recognized the basic design of this Decepticon.

"It's a Sweep," she told Faith. "We're in deep trouble."

"What's a Sweep?" Faith asked.

"Did that motorcycle just talk?" Buffy interjected, completely confused.

Neither Arcee nor Faith had time to answer any questions, as the Sweep suddenly exploded into motion. A rifle seemed to materialize in its right hand and it opened fire on Arcee, who quickly sped out of the way. At the same time the robot struck out with its left claw, seeking to decapitate Faith and Buffy. Both Slayers just managed to duck in time.

Arcee wasted no time transforming into robot mode, not caring that she was doing so in plain view of Buffy. She rolled across the ground, producing her own weapon from her subspace pocket, and opened fire on the Sweep. Her shots impacted against its chest, but left only minimal damage.

"Slag it," she swore. "Of course he'd have to be as tough as I remember them."

Faith drew her Cybertronian sword again, hoping that the alien-made weapon would be of some help against this towering monstrosity. She doubted stakes or knives would make much of an impact against battle armour that absorbed Arcee's laser blasts with little to show for it.

Concentrating, Faith tried to access the spark alignment between her and Arcee. If she ever needed it, now was the time. Thankfully the alignment seemed to think so, too, as it bloomed into full activity.

For a moment time seemed to freeze as human and Cybertronian thought mingled.

Faith saw Arcee's memories again. Sweeps. During the final years of the Great War these strange new Decepticon models had appeared. At that time the Decepticons had already been divided by infighting, several different factions fighting for dominance in the wake of the death of Megatron, their original leader.

The Sweeps had been part of a new faction that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and briefly managed to reunite the Deception forces under one banner. Their leader, Galvatron, had been massively powerful, but also quite unstable. During his time as Decepticon leader he had killed as many, if not more Decepticons than all the Autobot forces combined.

The Sweeps had been the cannon fodder of this new faction of Deceptions. They had always appeared short on smarts, but making up for it in toughness and firepower. Several Sweeps had been destroyed and brought in for analysis, revealing that their technology was quite a bit more advanced than anyone had suspected, but they lacked cognitive capacity. They did have a spark chamber, meaning they were alive, but whoever had designed them had obviously intended for them to be little more than drones, as their neural components were far below what their obvious level of technology should have been capable of.

No one had ever learned where they came from. Most of them had been destroyed in the final battles of the Great War, in which Galvatron and his lieutenants had disappeared without a trace. No one had ever gotten a good count of the number of Sweeps, as they all looked completely identical, but Autobot command had always assumed that some of them had gotten away.

Well, it appeared one of those survivors had made its way to planet Earth.

The exchange of information across the spark alignment had taken less than a heartbeat and time resumed its normal flow for the two friends. Their awareness was still fused into one, Slayer and Cybertronian combining their strengths to look for a weakness.

Amazingly, though, the Slayer also noticed something else about that Decepticon. Something that Arcee alone would never have been able to pick up: It gave off what Faith would have called a supernatural vibe.

The Sweep struck again, putting deeper analysis on hold for the moment. Arcee and Faith moved like a single mind with two bodies, attacking the Decepticon from two sides.

Buffy was still trying to overcome her surprise, both at the attacker and the motorcycle that had just shapeshifted into another giant robot, though not as gigantic as the first one. She found her body moving almost without conscious thought, though. In a way she didn't even begin to understand she, too, was drawn into the crude gestalt mind that had formed between Faith and Arcee. She wasn't spark-aligned with anyone, but was avatar to the same power that had chosen Faith, which linked them in a similar fashion.

Arcee kept up a laser barrage as best as she could, hoping to penetrate the Sweep's thick armour through continuous fire. Faith tried to get in close and score hits with her Cybertronian sword. It couldn't penetrate the armour, but it did do some damage. Buffy, having no weapon expect a wooden stake at hand, started hurling tombstones at the robot, hoping to distract it from the other two. The only way to bring this enemy down seemed to be chipping away at it bit by little bit and hope not to get killed in the process.

Their strategy seemed to work, as the Sweep seemed incapable of keeping track of all three of them. Had he been smarter he would have concentrated on one of them, trusting in his thick armour to protect him from the other two until he was done with the first. He tried to fight all three of them at once, though, and it rendered him quite ineffective.

Still, he was very strong and nearly invulnerable, so it was inevitable that he managed to get some licks of his own in. Arcee, biggest and least manoeuvrable of his three opponents, paid the price. One of her shots managed to wreck the Sweep's laser weapon, but the monster retaliated quickly by using his now free hand to claw Arcee right across the torso. The Autobot fell back, screaming in pain, as her armour was sliced open from shoulder to hip.

Faith screamed as well, Arcee's pain transmitting across their link with full force. She fell to her knees, clutching her body where her mind was telling her she was wounded. There was nothing there, of course, but that didn't help her in the slightest.

Buffy was luckier. Whatever link she shared with Faith didn't transmit pain, so she was the only good guy left standing for the moment it took Arcee and Faith to recover. The Sweep, sensing imminent victory, was closing in for the kill, leaning down to rip off Arcee's head.

"Oh no, you don't," Buffy yelled.

Taking a chance, she leapt at the bent Sweep, whose head was now within reach for once. She had no weapon that could even dent the thing's armour, but she gambled that his eyes weren't as heavily protected. Jumping nearly ten feet straight up, she hit the Sweep's left eye with a thundering dropkick.

The optic sensor shattered under the Slayer's strength. Now it was the Sweep who cried out in pain. Lashing out blindly, the back of his hand caught Buffy as she fell back down and threw her a good distance across the cemetery, the wind knocked out of her but good.

Arcee and Faith had recovered, though. Arcee, seeing her opening as the Sweep was still hovering quite close, took aim and sent a full laser burst into the Decepticon's healthy eye. Now effectively blind, the Transformer was stumbling around in pain, trying to get his bearings back. Arcee quickly tackled his knee, sending him down to the ground.

Faith wasted no time and jumped upon the prone Decepticon, jamming her Cybertronian sword into one of the shattered eye sockets with all her strength. The monofilament blade penetrated all layers of protection inside the Sweep's head and pierced his neural processor. Moments later the creature stopped struggling.

Breathing heavily, Faith got off her opponent and quickly checked the surroundings. Most of the graveyard had been pounded flat and several trees were burning from laser shots that had gone wide. The entire area looked like a disaster zone and she doubted they would remain alone here for much longer.

"You holding up, biker girl?" she asked Arcee, still feeling the pain from where her Autobot friend had been cut open.

"The damage is severe, but I'll survive," Arcee answered, Energon dripping from her wound. "I'll need a trip back to Autobase for repairs, though."

"Go now," Faith told her. "I'll meet you back at G's place once you're patched up. I figure I got some explaining to do here."

Arcee nodded, seeing that Buffy had gotten back up. The blonde Slayer was limping and favouring her ribs, but otherwise seemed to be okay. Her face clearly stated that she was expecting some answers.

"Take care of yourself until I'm back, okay? I don't know why a Sweep hung out here, but I doubt it was looking for a vacation. We need to check out where it came from."

Both friends heard the sounds of sirens in the distance.

"Some official types will be here soon," Faith said. "You should make yourself scarce, biker girl." Pointing at the fallen Decepticon, she added "and maybe send some of the boys back to collect the big buy here. I don't wanna know what the local police will make of a dead Decepticon."

"I'll do that. I think Ty will jump at the chance to personally cut open a Sweep. I'll be back in a few hours."

With that she transformed back into her bike mode -though with some difficulty thanks to her injuries- and sped off into the darkness. She was barely out of sight when Faith's ears picked up the faint boom that she'd come to associate with the opening of a spacebridge portal.

Buffy had reached her by now, her expression a mixture between exhaustion, pain, shock, and anger.

"What the hell was that?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Faith asked, putting a smirk on her face. "The big alien robot we just totalled or the motorbike that transformed into another alien robot?"

Buffy opened her mouth to say something, but seemingly couldn't think of anything. Before she could, though, there was another faint boom, followed by movement among the trees. Moments later two more alien robots stepped out of the shadows. Less than a minute had passed since Arcee had disappeared.

"Boy, you're fast," Faith just said.

X-Brawn and Prowl took in the carnage, as well as the dead Decepticon on the ground.

"And you've made a slagging mess," Prowl said. "Why do we always need to clean up after you and Arcee?"

Faith shrugged, giving her best good girl smile. "Consider it karma, police guy!"

Prowl just sighed and the two Autobot Brothers picked up the Sweep. Moments later they were gone again, leaving Faith and Buffy alone with the sound of approaching sirens.

"We should get out of here," Faith told Buffy. "Might be arrested for vandalism otherwise."

Buffy simply nodded, too shocked for words. Faith was quite certain she would find many words, probably some colourful ones among them, once the initial shock passed. She was not looking forward to the explanation session that was sure to come.

**End Chapter 4**


	21. Enter Sunnydale, p5 of 7

**Chapter 5: Uncomfortable Explanations **

--------------------------

Optimus Prime looked at the dead body of the Sweep lying in Autobase's repair bay and couldn't quite suppress a shudder. Being one of Cybertron's most powerful warriors meant that there were few things in life he needed to be afraid of and a Sweep was certainly not among them. He had dealt with quite a few of them in the past. He was still afraid, though, because the presence of the Sweep here on Earth threw up some disturbing questions.

First among them: Could all this be a coincidence? Local creatures, demons, after the Matrix he carried inside his chest compartment. A spark alignment between one of his soldiers and the girl who saved his life. A Sweep buried in the town the girl and Arcee travelled to, coming online right when they arrived.

Optimus Prime was not a big believer in coincidence.

Closing his optics, he accessed his memory files. In the final days of the Great War he had clashed with Galvatron more than once. The insane Decepticon commander had popped out of nowhere, massively powerful, commanding a seemingly endless number of these Sweep drones, and as far as they had been able to determine he wanted but three things: All Decepticons under his heel, all Autobots destroyed, and the Matrix. Galvatron, too, had been after the Matrix.

They had never found out why, just as they had never found out where Galvatron had come from. He had disappeared, along with his lieutenants Cyclonus and Scourge, during the final battle of the Great War when the Decepticons were once and for all routed and driven off Cybertron. Some part of Optimus had always hoped that he had perished along with his troops, but he had never really believed it.

And now there was a Sweep here on Earth.

"Prowl," he called his second-in-command. "The moment Arcee's repairs are complete, I want you to accompany her back to Sunnydale. Take X-Brawn with you as well! Find out where the Sweep came from! I want to know why it's here."

"Will do, Prime," Prowl just said.

Optimus would have liked nothing better than to accompany his people on this mission, but he didn't have the time. Deep space telemetry had picked up what could be an approaching star ship. One of his Spychanger teams had reported possible Predacon sightings in Africa. Cybertronian politics also demanded his attention, as there were many who thought that the Supreme Commander of the Autobots should stay home and govern instead of going on undercover missions on unimportant backwater planets.

All of which meant that he couldn't go walkabout right now, no matter how much he wanted to. He trusted his people, that wasn't the question. He just had a very bad feeling about all of this. Very bad.

--------------------------

"The guardian drone has been activated."

The shadowy figure turned to look at its counterpart.

"Are you certain? There hasn't been a single trace of life from it since it was installed at the gate location."

"Positive. The drone has detected Cybertronian intruders and engaged them. Outcome uncertain as of yet."

"This isn't good. Why would Primus' children even come close to the gate location?"

"Unknown. We need to do something about this, though."

"Agreed. Any luck acquiring the services of a vampire?"

"Our contacts have approached a vampire called Mr. Trick who professes to have knowledge of the current Vampire Slayer. His monetary demands are quite exorbitant, but within our capabilities."

"Good. Tell him to head toward Sunnydale then. I doubt it is coincidence that an Autobot has entered the town when the Slayer and one of Optimus Prime's minions just left Los Angeles yesterday."

"Agreed. We should also inform our allies of this, though. I would not want to suffer the Master's wrath because we trusted the safety of the gate to a vampire."

"Agreed. I will inform the Predacons to speed up their arrival."

--------------------------

"Giant alien robots?"

Rupert Giles had barely gone to sleep yet. After a very long phone call to the Council in England he had tried, but found that sleep eluded him. And then his Slayer had come knocking (quite forcefully), telling him a tale about giant alien robots in the cemetery.

To say that Rupert Giles was a bit confused and not entirely at his mental best would be an apt description of current affairs.

"Start over, please," he said, rubbing his tired eyes. "You said you encountered some vampires."

Buffy looked over at Faith, who had come in behind her and remained quiet so far. There seemed to be quite a bit of tension between the two that hadn't been there just a few hours ago.

"They were just short change," she said. "Faith and me took care of them. Then we... talked. And then this... this giant... robot thing came out of the ground and attacked us."

"Giant robot thing," Giles repeated, still not fully awake. He looked at Faith, who gave him a rather unconvincing 'I-don't-know-what-she's-talking-about' expression. Still, giant robot thing?

"Yeah! And Faith's motorcycle became a robot, too."

"Her motorcycle became a robot?" Giles asked. Faith once again gave him a shrug.

"And we beat the stuffing out of the robot and then more robots appeared and took it away. And where did you get that sword from anyway?"

The last question was directed at Faith. Giles had noted the sword she wore in a spine sheath on her back, but hadn't given it more than a passing glance. What was so special about it that had Buffy in an uproar? And... giant alien robots?

"Faith," he addressed the dark-haired Slayer, "can you maybe explain this to me?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, clearly torn about what to tell him, then sighed and sat down.

"I can only give you the cliff note's version, G. So basically, I met some new friends on my way from Boston. Really big, metal friends. I helped them a little, they helped me a little, now I'm travelling with one. That thing in the cemetery was a bad guy, their version of vampires, you could say, so I helped my friend deal with it. That's pretty much it."

Both Buffy and Giles just looked at her, clearly not satisfied with her short explanation.

"Giant alien robots?" Giles asked.

"Pretty much," Faith nodded. "Any further questions? No? Good."

Turning on her heel, she prepared to head out the door. She wasn't really certain where to go, seeing as she had told Arcee to meet up here, but she needed to get out from under those stares.

"Faith, please wait," Giles said. Maybe it was the 'please' that made Faith hesitate. She turned back around.

"Look, G! You've been decent and stuff. Thanks. But this is something I really can't talk about much. Lots of weirdness and strange happenings."

"You got that right," Buffy muttered.

"Faith," Giles began. "I appreciate that there are things you do not wish to talk about with virtual strangers, but if there is something going on here, something that threatens the safety of innocents, then I must insist on you informing us what it is."

Faith was torn. Her robot friends didn't want news of their presence spread around too much and she respected that. Besides, what did she really know about what was going on? Only that some old enemy of the Autobots was tearing up cemeteries around the Hellmouth. The Sweep thing was dead now, so the problem was probably solved. Wasn't it?

"I don't really know," she said, deciding that truth was the best way to go for now. "That thing we fought in the cemetery is some kind of left-over from an old war, or so I was told. My friends are trying to figure out where it came from and what it's doing here."

"What are your friends?" Buffy asked. "What do they want here?"

Faith bit back the urge to answer 'none of your business, bitch!' She was really getting better at that whole self-control thing.

"Not my story to tell," she simply answered, trying to remain cool. "Look, if there's anything that relates to vampires or end-of-the-world stuff, I'll let you guys know, promise." Unable to resist a final dig, she added "Now why don't you head off to bed, Goldie. Don't you got school tomorrow?"

Predictably Buffy's face darkened considerably and she tensed as if to attack. Faith was more than ready for that. A bit of one-on-one violence was far more up her alley than all this talking and honesty stuff.

"Where to do you get off..."

"Buffy, please," Giles interrupted, putting a hand on the blonde Slayer's shoulder. Buffy relaxed a bit, but only a bit. Faith just managed to keep herself from sticking out her tongue.

Giles opened his mouth to say something else, but the sound of approaching vehicles made him stop. Faith turned around. A police car, a minivan, and a motorcycle were racing down the street and came to a stop in front of the apartment. The driver of the motorcycle, who looked remarkably like Brad Pitt, turned to address Faith.

"Everything straightened out?" Arcee asked, her voice coming from 'Brad's' lips.

"Just about. You okay again?"

"Ty is getting better at fixing me up. Says it's all the practice she's gotten as of late."

"Optimus got a job for us," Prowl said, cutting in. "We figured out the most probably location where the Sweep came from. It's underground. We're to check it out."

"Why is Brad Pitt here and why does he sound like a woman?" Buffy asked, anger warring with confusion.

"Great, let's go," Faith said, ignoring the blonde Slayer. "Where is it?"

"Faith...," Giles began.

"Almost directly underneath the local high school," Arcee said. "Echo probing shows some tunnels we can use and..."

"Okay, everyone hold it" Buffy yelled, causing all present to look at her. "First thing, I don't like to be ignored. Second, I will get an answer about the Brad Pitt thing. And third, did you just say underneath the high school?"

"Yes, that's where..."

"Okay, this just became a 'vampire and end-of-the-world stuff' thing." Buffy glared at Faith. "So like it or not, Faith, I'm coming along with you and your metal friends."

"Like hell you are," Faith shot back, annoyed with the blonde Slayer's attitude.

"Hell is about the right word," Giles calmly interjected. "Faith, I'm sure your Watcher has told you about the Hellmouth we have here in Sunnydale." As Faith nodded, he continued. "Well, its location is right underneath the high school."

That managed to shut Faith up. After a moment she recovered.

"Okay, fine. You can come along, B."

She turned toward her Autobot friends. "Saddle up, guys. Looks like you're all gonna get the five cent tour of America's most active demon hot spot."

**End Chapter 5**


	22. Enter Sunnydale, p6 of 7

**Chapter 6: Things That Go Bump Underground**

-----------------------------

The darkness was thick and vibrant, much more than simple absence of light. It moved, it breathed, and was slowly clawing its way upwards. The chains holding it in place were straining to hold it, beginning to bend and crack. Soon now. Very soon.

It was dead, but even in death it was strong. It slept, but it was also wide awake. Its dreams held more power than any living mind and once it awoke it would devour the world. But for now it was dead and sleeping, dreaming of the day it would be alive and awake once more.

The darkness coiled, malicious power rippling as it moved in its death-slumber. Something was coming. Something that shouldn't be here. Enemies. Those that had bound it. Those that had killed it. They were coming here. Even in death it hated them. Even in death it wanted nothing more than to destroy them.

Soon it would be alive. Soon it would be awake. Soon it would be free. Then it would destroy them all.

-----------------------------

The tunnel the Autobots' echo probes had located began under one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries, not far from where the Sweep had come to the surface. They were barely wide enough for Prowl and X-Brawn, who had to remain in their vehicle forms in order to fit. In robot mode they would have had to crawl on their hands and knees. As it was their paint jobs would need some renewing afterwards, the rocky tunnel walls taking their toll. Arcee was having a bit more luck, being less big than her comrades-in-arms. She had no problem travelling in her bike mode and probably would have managed in robot mode, too.

The tunnel was more than wide enough for Buffy and Faith, but the journey was uncomfortable for them as well. The two Slayers didn't say much of a word to each other the entire time, preferring to treat each other with icy silence. Arcee was a bit worried about this. They were heading into unknown danger, danger of the supernatural kind possibly, and their two resident experts on the subject were obviously preoccupied with each other.

As for herself, Arcee was feeling decidedly edgy. The spark alignment that allowed her to access Faith's sensitivity for the supernatural was once again lying quiet, but maybe she had managed to pick up some taste for it of her own by now. Or maybe she was just imagining things. Either way, this place felt... evil. Very much evil. She really wanted to shoot something.

"Any idea how much farther we have to go?" Arcee asked Prowl.

"This tunnel goes down for another 800 meters. Then we need to go through several small caverns and should reach the projected point of origin of the Sweep within another kilometre at the most. Something down here is interfering with the echo probes, though, so my estimate may be off."

"The tunnels underneath Sunnydale have always been weird," Buffy supplied. "At times I think they are a lot vaster and go deeper than should be possible."

"That could be the case," Prowl supplied. "The interference we've picked up bears certain similarities to Transwarp radiation. It is possible that local space is experiencing a warping effect, literally making it bigger than its outside boundaries would indicate."

"I hope your sensors are good enough to stop us from going in endless circles then," Faith said. "I really need something to kill and soon."

"Sure you do," Buffy answered, causing Faith to glare at her.

"Stick to being a tour guide, okay?"

"Peace, girls," Arcee said before the words could escalate. "We have more important stuff to deal with right now, okay?"

"Yeah sure!"

"Fine!"

They continued to walk (and drive) in silence. The Autobots had put their engines into silent mode. Though they could mimic the sounds of Earth vehicles to perfection, they didn't use internal combustion engines and could be as silent as they wanted to. The click-click of Buffy's heels on the stone floor was actually the loudest sound anyone made.

Soon the tunnel widened into a cavern. The headlights from the three Autobots illuminated it as much as they could. It quickly became apparent that the cavern was bigger than it had any right to be, considering that they weren't that far underground.

"Weird," Buffy mumbled. "I've been in the tunnels underneath the school dozens of times, but this place isn't familiar at all."

"I suspect we are a lot deeper underground than the slope of the tunnel indicated," Prowl said. "Air density and ambient temperature suggest we are at least one kilometre underneath the surface, maybe more."

Arcee hesitated, checking her sensors. "Prowl, are you picking up any weird energy signatures?"

The other Autobot took a second to transform into his robot mode before he faced his comrade. "No more than before, just some minute traces of transwarp radiation. Why?"

"I'm getting something, but I can't make heads or tails of it."

Faith looked around, feeling something creep across her skin. Buffy seemed equally uncomfortable.

"I think you're picking it up from me," Faith finally said. "This place is giving off some seriously wicked vibes."

Buffy gave her a questioning look, probably wondering how Arcee could be getting anything from her, but Faith didn't dignify it with a response. If Goldie wanted to be nosy, let her at least spell out the questions.

"We are close to the Hellmouth," Buffy added, apparently leashing her curiosity for the moment. "Bound to be weird."

Faith had told her Autobot friends what little she knew of the Hellmouth. Some sort of supernatural convergence, possibly a gateway to Hell, a major source of attraction to all kinds of demonic badness. It wasn't much, granted, but far more than her robotic buddies could pick up by themselves. As far as their sensors were concerned, there was nothing here except for that transwarp nonsense they kept talking about.

Looking around, Faith knew there was more to this cavern than that. There was nothing her eyes could see except some really weird rock formations towering high above them, but her Slayer senses were practically screaming danger. Something bad was down here and somehow she knew it was about to pounce.

-----------------------------

Not far from the group of robots and Slayers an ancient piece of machinery came to life once more. The failsafe it had activated but a few short hours ago had apparently failed. The enemy was here. The great cause was in danger. This could not be allowed.

There was another option, of course. The tools of the enemy could be used against it. Oh, control over the enemy tools was incomplete at best, but certain things could be achieved simply by utilizing preprogrammed responses and a slight blurring of recognition routines.

The irony of using the enemy's own tools against it escaped the soulless automation, of course. It merely activated the proper coding sequence, hacked long ago from the enemy's mainframe, and set events into motion.

And just to be on the safe side, it activated its final safety measure.

-----------------------------

The three Autobots and two Slayers were still studying their surroundings and trying to get a bead on the 'wicked vibes', when the ground beneath their feet started to vibrate. The small vibration quickly grew into a mild tremor and showed no sign of letting up.

"Not another earthquake," Buffy complained, fighting for balance.

"We should consider evacuating," Prowl said. "If this cavern caves in, I'm not sure even our armoured shells would protect us."

Before anyone could even think of following Prowl's advice, though, the tremors increased again. The giant rock formations they had been looking at seemed to catch the worst of it The biggest formation looked almost like a huge tower with two smaller buildings beside it and it was shaking like crazy. Shaking so badly, in fact, that parts of it began to crack and break off.

Revealing gleaming steel just beneath the rocky surface.

"What in Primus' name is that?" Arcee asked.

The mismatched group watched in amazement as the rock formation in front of them revealed itself to be something else altogether. The metallic structure beneath it looked old and worn, yet at the same time timeless and impervious. The shaking came from the structure itself, they quickly realized, which was freeing itself from the layers of time it had accumulated.

Its centre was a huge tower, at least eighty meters in height. It was surrounded by lesser buildings and ramps, looking almost like a miniature city. The entire complex seemed too vast to fit into the cavern somehow as it dwarfed them with its majesty.

All eyes quickly centred on the huge red emblem that stood out on the armoured surface of the central tower.

"That's an Autobot symbol," Faith whispered, double-checking with the crests on the shells of her friends, even though she didn't really need to. "How come it has an Autobot symbol on it?"

"I... I have no idea," Arcee said. "It... from the look of things it must have been here for thousands of years, but that's impossible. As far as I know we were never even in this corner of the Milky Way until now."

"Look over there," Prowl said, indicating the far left side of the structure. There was something there that was obviously not part of it, at least not originally. It was a needle-shaped object about thirty meters in length and it appeared to have crashed into the larger structure with considerable force, seeing how deep it was imbedded in the armoured wall.

The object was a small space ship and it, too, carried a crest on its hull. Only this one was purple.

"A Decepticon assault shuttle," X-Brawn muttered. "This keeps getting better and better."

The shaking of the ground was ebbing off as the structure had shed most of the rock layers and now stood before them in all its glory. An almost subsonic humming filled the cavern, sounding like huge machinery coming to life.

"I'm getting high-level Energon readings," Prowl alerted the others. "I think it might be prudent to take cover."

He had no sooner said the words when the structure began to shift and transform in front of them. Panels folded away and barrels of huge weapons emerged in rapid succession, their muzzles glowing an eerie orange.

The Autobots and Slayers barely managed to dive behind a large outcropping of rocks before the fireworks started. Burst of orange energy exploded from the multiple laser batteries scattered all over the structure. Multiple layers of stone were vaporized in an instant, temperatures spiked as the air around them was super-heated.

"This cover won't hold for long," Prowl said. "We need to withdraw."

"Fat chance," X-Bran replied. "There is nothing but open ground between us and the tunnel we came in through. We'll be slagged before we cover half of it."

"I hate it when they use guns," Buffy muttered. "I hate it even more when they use alien laser guns."

"This ever happen to you before?" Faith asked.

"Not as such, but I hate it on general principle."

"Our cover will be gone in a few seconds," Arcee reminded them. "We need to do something."

Arcee and Faith locked eyes and the spark alignment between them flared to life once again. By now Arcee considered her earlier hypotheses that the alignment reacted to imminent or present danger pretty much confirmed. Once again the primal, magical skills of the Slayer combined with her highly efficient computer brain and looked for the best way to solve this problem.

Within the span of a human heartbeat the combination of Slayer and Cybertronian assimilated every bit of information it could find about the tactical situation. The layout of the cave itself, the firepower of the alien installation, the response time of the guns, the best land speed of Arcee and her Autobot comrades, the odds of a Slayer lasting even a second in that firestorm out there, everything. And it quickly presented the best possible solution.

"We need to charge," both of them said at the same time in the same tone of voice.

"Are you nuts?" Buffy asked her, not sure whether she meant the charge or the way the other Slayer's voice suddenly synched with that of the alien robot.

"We'll be molten before we even put a dent in that armour," Prowl pointed out.

"The main hatch on the primary ramp is standing wide open," Arcee and Faith said. "At full speed we can make it in before our armours buckle under the firepower of that thing. We have a much better chance of surviving against whatever internal defences this thing has than lasting out here."

Prowl and X-Brawn didn't like it and Buffy liked it even less, but with their cover rapidly being vaporized, they had little choice. Prowl and X-Brawn transformed into their car shapes, each of them taking one of the Slayers as a passenger to protect them from the firepower. Arcee also transformed and moments later the three Autobots raced out from behind their cover on three different trajectories, but all heading straight toward the installation.

For a moment all shots went wide as the computer brain behind the guns assessed the new situation, but then fire rained down on the three vehicles. Both Buffy and Faith had to press their hands to their ears to block out the robotic screams of their protectors as their metallic hides were raked by laser blasts.

"Faster, guys!" Arcee had drawn ahead of the two larger Autobots, by far the fastest of the three. Speeding up the ramp to the main entrance, she transformed back into robot mode several meters short of the dubious safety offered by the corridor beyond and quickly drew her rifle, sending up several shots at the gun barrels on the huge central tower. Moments later most of the firepower shifted her way, freeing up her slower friends.

Everything went by incredibly fast and suddenly the fire storm was done, the five beings now inside a metallic tunnel that led inside the vast installation. Faith and Buffy quickly emerged from their transports. Prowl and X-Brawn transformed back to robot mode, both of them badly singed and bleeding Energon from multiple wounds. Thankfully none of them looked life-threatening. Arcee was a bit better off, her smaller stature and better agility serving her well, but she was in pretty bad shape as well.

"Second time in one night," Arcee complained. "Ty is going to kill me."

"Okay, we're inside now," Prowl said. "Somehow I doubt this is the end of all our troubles."

"Why is an Autobot base firing on us in the first place?" Faith asked the Autobots. "Don't you guys have some sort of... what's it called... friend/foe shit so it doesn't shoot you to bits?"

"We have no idea how old this installation is," Prowl told her. "The computers might be damaged. Or that Decepticon ship imbedded in its side has something to do with it."

Buffy was looking around with wide eyes. The tunnel was built to Cybertronian scale, meaning Prowl, X-Brawn, and Arcee had no problem standing upright inside it. Buffy felt dwarfed and more than a bit out of her element. And it very much irked her that Faith seemed to have no such problems. She was working with these robots as if she were one of them. What was up with that?

"We need to find the command centre," Arcee said. "Autobot security codes haven't changed that much over the last few million years. Maybe we can access the mainframe from there."

"Let's go then! Everything is better than just standing around here." X-Brawn immediately took the lead.

Both Faith and Buffy froze when their Slayer senses suddenly screamed 'Danger' at them, but were too slow to warn anyone. The walls around them came alive and thick steel tentacles attacked the Autobots, looking to crush them into tin foil.

"That's more like it," X-Brawn yelled, ripping the first tentacle apart. "Finally something I can put my hands on."

Both Slayers moved to help (though neither was quite sure how effective they would be against steel tentacles), but the floor opened up underneath them, making them slide down a long metallic slope until they unceremoniously landed inside another metal room. There was no source of light around them and the sounds of battle quickly faded behind them.

"Where the hell are we?" Buffy looked around.

Faith opened her mouth for some sort of witty response, but the room suddenly lit up. The light was blinding, forcing them to close their eyes. When they opened them again, they were no longer standing in a room. They were on a wide-open plain, no caves or alien bases anywhere in sight.

The sky was purple and they could see a giant planet with multiple rings filling up nearly a third of it.

"Wicked," Faith whispered.

"Why do I get the feeling we're not in Kansas anymore?"

TO BE CONTINUED


	23. Enter Sunnydale, p7 of 7

**Chapter 7: The Tale of the Giant **

------------------------------------

The ancient piece of alien machinery that was the Decepticon assault shuttle analysed the new tactical situation and would have been displeased had it been capable of that emotion. As it was it could only conclude that its earlier tactic of trying to use the enemies' own tools against them was failing. The enemies were now inside the tool and the odds of its internal defences defeating them were not promising.

Its hold on the enemy tool was precarious at best. Deceiving it into believing the newcomers to be foes was the best it could do. Well, not quite. There was one final option it could carry out. It was to be used only as a last resort. The master would have preferred to gain full control over the enemy tool and use it against those who had created it. Destroying it, though, was preferable to allowing the enemies to regain control of it.

And it was losing control. Something had changed. Soon the enemy tool would be able to wake up and carry out its original purpose.

The alien machinery did not have anything that resembled a sense of self-preservation, so it did not hesitate before arming the proton warhead in its cargo hold. It would detonate as soon as all relevant data was copied and transmitted to the back-up location.

A countdown equivalent to six Earth minutes began ticking down.

------------------------------------

"Where are Faith and Buffy?" Arcee yelled, at the same time tearing one of the attacking steel tentacles to shreds.

"They're gone," Prowl answered, busy ensuring his own survival. "Some kind of trapdoor opened up and they fell in."

"Go look for them, Arcee," X-Brawn cut in. "Me and Prowl can take care of these things."

The smallest of the three Autobots nodded, putting some distance between herself and the skirmish. Her optics needed but a moment to make out the slight irregularity in the floor where the trapdoor was. Digging her metal fingers in, she began tearing it open.

_Hold on, Faith _, she tried transmitting over their fading link. _I'm coming. _

------------------------------------

"This is so not good," Buffy whispered, looking at the alien sky above them. "This is an entirely different country from good."

"Entirely different world more like it," Faith added. "Where the fuck is this place?"

The purple sky above them was strange enough, but the giant ringed planet filling about a third of it was like a huge weight hanging over them. Both Slayers knew that it was ridiculous, but couldn't help but feel afraid of it falling down on them, crushing them like bugs.

Suddenly the ground shook, nearly knocking them off their feet. Moments later it shook again. And again. And again. Regular intervals almost like... footsteps. Footsteps that were coming closer. Both Slayers managed to sense the direction they were coming from and twisted around.

"You gotta be shitting me," Faith whispered, craning her neck to look up.

Waaaay up.

The first time Faith had met Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, she had been awestruck by his physical presence. Towering ten meters tall, the red robot had dwarfed her easily. All the other Autobots, while not as tall as him, were giants as well. While still feeling dwarfed in their presence, she had begun to get used to hanging out with people five times her size.

The robot walking towards them here on this alien planet put a whole new meaning to the word giant. His every step shook the ground. Every move of his limbs caused a violent gust of wind. He was still quite the distance away, but already he blocked out a good-sized portion of the sky. Faith had no way to accurately estimate his size, but he had to be at least ten times the size of Optimus Prime, probably more.

And he was walking directly toward them.

Looking over at her blonde companion, Faith saw that Buffy was frozen in shock. Not surprising, she had only just met her first alien robot and was now faced with one who would step on her without even noticing. Wrenching her out of her stupor, Faith pulled her along as she ran to get out of the robot's way.

"This isn't possible," Buffy whispered. "Something that big..."

"Yeah, I know. Still don't wanna be stepped on, B!"

The towering giant seemed oblivious to their presence and kept walking. Faith realized she had seriously underestimated his size, he was still farther away than she had feared. By the time he passed them she could see that his foot was as large as a garage. One with multiple cars in it. His footsteps knocked them off their feet.

Tired. So tired. No more fighting. Sick of fighting. Peace. Just peace. Lay down my arms and rest.

"Did you hear that?" Faith asked.

"Hear what?"

The giant stopped about a kilometre away from them. He just stood there and seemed to be staring at the purple sky.

_Too much to ask? Not fought enough? So sick of fighting. Can't take more fighting. _

"I mean that!"

"I didn't hear anything."

Faith was confused. Why didn't Buffy hear those words? Where did they come from anyway? Closing her eyes, she tried to zero in on the source. With a start she realized that they were not spoken words. They weren't words at all, really, just impressions. Impressions that streamed into her mind just like... just like when she and Arcee shared memories.

"Arcee?" she yelled, looking around. "Biker girl, where are you?"

Enough! No more! Peace! Only way to find peace.

The ground shook once again as the giant robot sat down with a fluent movement that belied his massive size. His back facing towards them, he still towered at least a hundred or more meters tall. His giant arms rose, hands large enough to crush trucks inside them moved towards its head.

_Cheat destiny! No more fighting! Done enough! Let someone else take the load! _

The screech of tearing metal was enough to drive the two small humans to their knees once again, pressing their hands to their ears in a vain attempt to keep it out. The giant ripped off its own head, tore it off his shoulders and dropped it to the ground. The impact caused an earthquake, which doubled in intensity as the now headless body toppled over backwards.

"Run!" Buffy yelled, returning the earlier favour as the pulled a spell-bound Faith along.

The tremor reached them before they had gotten very far, tearing open the ground and sending them flying. It lasted no more than maybe ten seconds, but by the time they recovered the formerly flat ground had been turned into a rubble-strewn wasteland. The prone body of the (dead?) robot looming behind them like a mountain.

"It tore off its own head," Buffy whispered, shaking her head. "Giles never said anything about giant robots that tear off their own heads."

Faith struggled back to her feet, her eyes glued to the head now lying beside its former body. The dull-grey face was facing toward them, the giant eyes closed, an expression of peace forever frozen in death.

For some strange reason she felt herself drawn to the head. She couldn't understand why, but she felt the need to touch it.

------------------------------------

LOG DISPLAY 1-873-987-88-1 COMPLETED.

SPARK SCAN COMPLETED. DISPLAYING RESULTS.

SPARK COMPATIBILITY SUBJECT 1: 62.765 PERCENT.  
SPARK COMPATIBILITY SUBJECT 2: 48.726 PERCENT.

PROBABILITY OF BINARY BONDING PROCEDURE SUCCESS WITH SUBJECT 1: 58.364 PERCENT

ASSESSING THREAT LEVEL, COMPARING SUCCESS PROBABILITY.

WAITING...

CALCULATION COMPLETED. CURRENT THREAT LEVEL NOT SUFFICIENT TO JUSTIFY RISK OF BINARY BONDING PROCEDURE.

ABORTING PROCEDURE. MARKING SUBJECT 1 FOR FURTHER OBSERVATION.

ATTENTION: NEW THREAT DETECTED. FOREIGN VESSEL EMITTING PROTON RADIATION.

ACTIVATING TRANSWARP ENGINES.

------------------------------------

Faith was still a long distance away from the discarded head when the world around them suddenly changed. The alien landscape, complete with headless robot and discarded head, flickered and then vanished, to be replaced by a featureless metallic room. The same room they had been in before finding themselves on an alien planet.

"Okay, I've had just about enough," Buffy stomped. "I want my vampires and demons back."

"Faith?" someone yelled. Moments later a door they hadn't even noticed was torn open and Arcee came busting in, looking at them with obvious relief. "Thank Primus you are okay."

"I wouldn't use the word okay," Buffy complained. "Okay is not being kidnapped to an alien planet and then brought back without so much as a word of explanation. What is going on here?"

Faith shook her head, coming out of whatever trance she'd been in just moments ago. Why had she been so drawn to that giant robot's head? Had the head and the robot ever been there in the first place? Had they really been to an alien planet?

Arcee, sensing her confusion maybe, quickly scanned the room around them and found an answer to at least some of her questions.

"This is a sensory room, Faith, Buffy. Whatever you saw, it wasn't real. Just holographic recordings."

"This was all just a movie?" Faith asked. "But... the ground shook. We could feel the footsteps and I heard... I heard..."

"Footsteps? Faith, what did you see?"

Faith was trying to find the words to explain what she had just experienced, but didn't get the time. An alien voice suddenly filled the room, alien words echoing from the walls around them.

"Okay, we need to go," Arcee said, unceremoniously grabbing the two Slayers and running out the door.

"Hey, what gives?" Buffy asked. "We can walk by ourselves, you know?"

Arcee didn't listen. The moment she was out the door she threw both of them into the air and transformed. Faith and Buffy didn't even have time to react before they landed directly on Arcee's motorcycle seat. All they could do was hold on as Arcee accelerated like mad and tore down the corridor with them on top.

"Biker girl, spill! What's the bad?"

"Basically? This place is about to warp out and we need to get away before it does or we might find ourselves Primus knows where in the universe."

"Oh. Okay."

No more words were exchanged, the two Slayers just holding on tight as Arcee took turns at insane speeds. Moments later they found themselves reunited with Prowl and X-Brawn, the two larger Autobots discarding the remnants of the steel tentacles.

"Good, you found them," Prowl said. "Time to leave."

Before he made good on his words, though, he planted some kind of technological knick knack on the nearest wall, then transformed into his car mode. X-Brawn did likewise and all three Autobots thundered down the corridor toward the exit.

About a hundred questions were buzzing through Faith's mind, but she didn't voice any of them. Wrong time. Still, she couldn't put them out of her head. Why had they been shown that holographic movie thing? Why had they seen a giant robot (whom she now realized had had an Autobot crest on his chest) on an alien planet tearing off his own head? Why had she felt drawn to the head? Why had she heard words... impressions... whatever during the recording when Buffy hadn't? It hadn't been Arcee, obviously, but then who? The giant robot? How did one get impressions that were like those sent across a spark alignment from a recording?

Yeah, she did have questions. Unfortunately no one was interested in them right now.

The three Autobots sped out of the massive installation and down the ramp at top speed. Thankfully no one seemed interested in frying them anymore, the many gun turrets on the metal towers now silent. The Decepticon ship imbedded in the installation's side was looking bad, though. It was shaking, rumbling, energy was arcing along its hull.

"The Decepticon assault shuttle is emitting proton radiation," Prowl said as they made best speed toward the nearest exit from this giant cave. "It probably carries a warhead and rigged it to blow."

"I'm getting a sharp increase in transwarp readings, too."

------------------------------------

Two alien machines were busy trying to outrace each other. One was on board the Decepticon assault shuttle. Eons ago it had crashed into the Autobot installation and managed to infiltrate some of its systems. It had managed to shut it down for quite some time, had managed to deceive it into firing on Autobots.

It was rapidly losing its hold, though. The Autobot installation was awake again. Something about the newcomers had caused a new program to come online, one that had detected the Decepticon incursion and was rapidly purging it from its mainframe. It had apparently also noticed the proton warhead about to blow, for it was preparing to leave.

Clocks raced each other. An ancient proton warhead approached critical mass. An equally ancient transwarp engine was warming up. A Decepticon computer was trying to commit suicide and take an Autobot computer with it, while the Autobot computer tried to flee.

It would be a matter of microseconds.

------------------------------------

The three Autobots and their passengers were in the tunnel when the world behind them exploded. The proton warhead the Decepticon assault shuttle carried was designed to wipe out cities. The transwarp engine inside the Autobot installation could rip a whole into the fabric of space large enough to fit is entire considerable mass through.

The combination of the proton explosion and transwarp radiation quickly laid waste to the entire cave. The entire tunnel system, its layout warped and changed by residual transwarp radiation, shuddered as it was suddenly forced to realign itself with reality. Ceilings collapsed, thousands of tons of rock crashed down, all traces of what had happened here were wiped out in an instance.

Three Autobots and two Slayers found themselves standing just a few meters ahead of a collapsed tunnel and thanked whatever gods of fortune had smiled down on them today. This had been too close.

"Okay, what happened?" Buffy asked, easily the most clueless of the five, though Faith wasn't that far behind.

"The Decepticon shuttle blew itself up," Prowl said. "The Autobot installation probably picked up the radiation of the warhead and charged up its transwarp engine to get away."

"So it... what? Teleported out?"

"Something like that. If it made it in time, that is. According to my sensors the explosion and the transwarp activation happened within 0.347 Earth seconds of each other. No telling if anything got out of there intact."

"You planted a tracking device inside," Arcee said. "Are you picking up anything?"

Prowl shook his head. "Nothing. The device has but limited range, though. Even a transwarp engine that old would have no trouble jumping a lot further than that."

"Slag," Arcee mumbled. "Shot up twice in one day and nothing to show for it."

She turned to look at Faith and Buffy.

"You said you saw an alien planet inside that sensory room?" she asked, receiving nods in return. "Can you describe it?"

Buffy shook her head. "Look, can we exchange infos once we're back above ground? I don't know about you, but even the evil Sunnydale night looks kind of attractive right now."

"For once I agree with blondie here," Faith said. "Let's head topside and get some fresh air. We can try and figure this shit out up there as well as down here."

"Might as well," X-Brawn added. "I don't think we're gonna find anything else here."

Turning to head up the tunnel, X-Brawn lent down to address Buffy. "Think you can find us some of those vamps and demons you mentioned? Getting shot at without being able to return the favour always leaves me in need of a good fight."

Buffy was dumbfounded for a moment, but then laughed.

"Sure. I'll show you some of my favourite stomping grounds."

X-Brawn transformed and let Buffy climb inside. Arcee and Faith watched, unable to keep from smiling.

"Another Autobot-Slayer friendship in the making? What do you think?"

"One is quite enough," Prowl muttered, transforming himself. The laughter of Faith and Arcee followed him as he sped up towards the surface.

------------------------------------

**Next: The Epilogue**


	24. Enter Sunnydale, Epilogue

**Epilogue: The Fall-Out **

-------------------

_Sunnydale, California: _

"So, you and X-Brawn, eh?" Faith asked, smiling.

"We just stomped some vampires together, nothing else," Buffy said. "Oh, and that 'stomped' thing I mean literally. He stepped on them."

Faith had just returned to Sunnydale after a brief trip to Autobase to see Arcee patched up and give a brief report to Optimus Prime. She actually felt a bit strange about that report thing. Did Optimus consider her a subordinate? She certainly wasn't. Then again, when it came to things like alien robot bases buried underground he was probably the go-to man, so in these cases she might as well consider him her boss. Just in those cases, though, nowhere else.

"Arcee okay?" Buffy asked. "She took some lickings down there. Not that having holes in his hide seemed to slow X-Brawn down."

"Nah, the 'Bots are pretty tough customers. Ty can patch them up in no time flat."

Buffy had given her own report to Giles, who was even now reading through some ancient books hoping to find something about ancient alien robots or such. Faith doubted he'd find anything, but it seemed to calm him down a lot. As far as she was concerned, she was just thankful that Buffy's teenage sidekicks hadn't made another appearance so far. For some reason she was quite certain the two would nerd out in no time flat when faced with alien robots.

Her plans to be out of town almost as fast as she'd gotten here were pretty much trashed for the moment, though. Optimus Prime wanted answers about the Sweep thing and whatever that underground base had been and while he couldn't order her around, he sure could order Arcee. And Faith had no intention of going anywhere while Arcee was stuck on the Hellmouth, that much was for sure.

Which also meant she and Buffy would have to reach some sort of common ground.

"Look, B," she said, but at the same moment Buffy said "Look, Faith."

The two Slayers looked at each other for a moment, then exploded into laughter. After they recovered Buffy motioned for Faith to go first.

"I just wanted to say that I kind of overdid it, B," Faith said. Apologies never did come easy to her. "It's none of my business how you go about the Slayer thing. Different girls, different takes, I guess. So I'm saying we're five by five if that's okay with you."

Buffy looked at her long enough to make Faith fidget, then nodded with a slight smile.

"I was thinking about what you said. About my treating Slaying like a part-time job."

"I was full of shit, B. I just..."

"No, you were... well, not right, but somewhere in close vicinity to right." Sighing, Buffy brushed some stray strands of hair from her face. "I never liked being the Slayer. Never. And ever since what happened a few months ago... well, I've liked it even less. I know I can't stop, but... maybe I've been trying to push it aside too much. Maybe."

Looking up at Faith, she added "I'll take what you said to heart, Faith. But I want you to think about something, too, okay?" Faith nodded hesitantly. "Being the Slayer might be a full-time job, I give you that. But it can't be your entire life."

Seeing Faith was about to protest, she continued. "What I'm saying is... you need something other than the Slaying around you. You need to have something tangible to represent what you're fighting for. Kendra... she didn't have any of that. She was a great fighter, but she fought without passion. She had nothing but the mission. And she died within a year after becoming the Slayer. I don't want that to happen to you."

Faith opened her mouth, but then thought. Becoming the Slayer was the best thing that had ever happened to her and she had embraced it whole-heartedly, even after it got Clarice killed. And she was pretty sure it would have gotten her killed, too, if not for her encounter with Optimus Prime. Kakistos would have finished her by now.

And now she had Arcee in her life. Something that had little to do with Slaying, but now that she thought about it, she wouldn't give up her friendship with the Autobot for anything. And if it took time away from Slaying... so what?

"You're right about that one, B," she simply said, causing a somewhat surprised look on the blonde Slayer's face. She had obviously expected Faith to argue more. "You're damn right about that."

-------------------

_Autobase, Tokyo, Japan: _

"Thank you, Arcee," Optimus Prime said, finished with looking through her report. "After Ty gives you a clean bill of health I want you to return to Sunnydale and keep watch until we figure out what to do next."

"Yes, Prime. With your permission I would like to send a message to Cybertron before I leave."

Prime nodded, knowing whom she wanted to contact and that she was also asking for permission to talk about some of the most recent events of their mission, events that Optimus didn't want widely spread until he knew more.

"Just tell Hot Rod not to talk his mouth off until he gets permission from me," he said.

"Will do, Prime," Arcee said, then turned to leave.

Prime leant back in his chair, looking at the report one again. Both his Autobots and Faith had given a pretty good description of the buried Autobot base. Add to that Faith's account of the holographic simulation she and the other Slayer had experienced, it added up to a very curious picture.

Accessing his personal database, Optimus called up some very old files he hadn't looked at in a long, long time. Come to think of it, most of his team hadn't even been built when he had lasted looked at them.

A 3D image flittered across his optics, showing a towering robot striding across Cybertron, right alongside a young Autobot lieutenant called Optimus.

"Maximus, old friend," Prime muttered. "Can that really be you?"

-------------------

_City of Iacon, Planet Cybertron: _

The hard-won peace on Cybertron was interrupted only occasionally by skirmishes between Autobot security forces and remaining splinter cells of Decepticons that had somehow managed to escape the planet-wide routing of their armies. It was considered light duty by the Autobots called in to handle such incidents, seeing as the Decepticons in question were almost always in a state of disrepair and low on Energon.

One such skirmish had just finished and the Autobots had walked away with another win. Two Decepticons destroyed, four more captured, and only a few dents and scorch marks received in return. Hot Rod, the leader of this particular Autobot unit, walked into the garrison and stretched his aching joints, wishing for nothing but a relaxing oil-bath and some Energon cubes.

"Hey, Roddie!" A green-and-white Autobot approached Hot Rod.

"Springer, old buddy. What are you doing back here? I thought they'd reassigned you to Polyhex."

Springer smiled at his flame-coloured friend. "Yeah, they did, and I'm packing my stuff first thing tomorrow morning. Just thought we could head out into Tyger Pax for a round of spoiled Energon first. What do you say?"

Hot Rod laughed. "No problem, we can do that. Just let me get a quick recharge, then I'm all yours."

"Okay. Oh, before I forget. I went by com central earlier and saw you had a message waiting. A message from a certain sleek and sexy fembot we both know, who, for reasons far beyond me, is hot for your skidplate."

Hot Rod brightened up considerably. It had been too long since he'd heard from Arcee. Ever since she'd gone on that undercover assignment with Optimus Prime, she'd been in contact only sparingly.

Heading to his quarters, Hot Rod barely took the time to put his guns into the recharge array before accessing the waiting message. As he read it, though, his smile quickly faded. A spark alignment with an organic native? Some kind of indigenous creatures after the Matrix? A field mission to find out more about them? Sweeps? Underground Autobot bases? This didn't sound good.

Without taking much time to think, Hot Rod came to a decision. He immediately contacted Iacon central command.

"Roddie?" the veteran Autobot appearing on the screen asked. "What can I do for you, lad?"

Kup, the Autobot in charge of Cybertron planetary security, was well known to Hot Rod. During the final days of the Great War Hot Rod had been assigned to Kup's unit and the veteran Autobot had not only become his mentor, but also a good friend.

"Hi, Kup. Look, I need a favour."

"What did you do this time?"

"Nothing. I just need you to do something for me. I want to be reassigned to Optimus Prime's team on Earth."

For a moment Kup just stared at him, then he exploded into laughter.

"Roddie, you never cease to amaze me, lad. Do you know how many Autobots have applied for reassignment to Optimus' team? Especially since the war ended and Decepticons have gotten scarce? Everyone wants to be on that mission."

"I know that, Kup, but I'm not looking for the action, okay?"

Thinking a moment, Kup adopted a knowing smile. "You wouldn't happen to be looking for a certain fembot we both know who managed to snag a spot on Prime's team, would you?"

"Yes, this is about Arcee, Kup. She's in some kind of trouble and... slag it, I need to be there for her, okay? I need you to do this for me, Kup. Please!"

Kup's face grew serious. He often made fun of the young whippersnapper, but truth was, he liked Hot Rod a lot and respected his abilities as a warrior. The young Autobot had saved his life during a particularly nasty mission where Kup had managed to get himself shot into pieces. He also knew how deeply Hot Rod felt about Arcee.

"Okay, kid, fine. I'll see what I can do. But no promises. And you better make sure you're in fighting trim if you do get there, because I won't be the 'Bot who sent Optimus anything but the best for his team."

"Thank you, Kup! I owe you one."

Hot Rod signed off and read Arcee's message again. Slag it, he just hoped Kup managed to do his thing and fast.

END EPILOGUE

-------------------

**Next Time on "A Slayer Transformed": **

Sunnydale is being invaded by the boys from space and hell. Arcee's flame Hot Rod comes to town, ready to take on anything that might threaten his leading lady. Buffy's ex-boyfriend Angel returns from Hell, making the concept of demons and sparks even more complicated for the Autobots. And Faith's old pals Kakistos and Mr. Trick are over for a visit as well. Tune in for " **The Boys Are Back in Town **", the next exciting episode of " **A Slayer Transformed **".


	25. The Boys Are Back in Town, p1 of 7

**A Slayer Transformed: The Boys Are Back in Town**  
by Philip S.  
Rating: PG-13 

**Author's Note**: Welcome to the fourth story arc of "A Slayer Transformed". We are adding some boys to the cast, some from Hell, some from space, some we've seen before.

And now, on with the show:

--------------------------------

**Previously on _A Slayer Transformed_:**

Faith is the Vampire Slayer, Earth's chosen defender against the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. Arcee is an Autobot, member of an alien race of mechanoid shapeshifters, who have come to Earth to defend it against their enemies, the Predacons. When Faith came to the rescue of Arcee's commander Optimus Prime she was gravely wounded and the only way to save her was to link their sparks, the Autobot term for soul. Faith is saved, but the spark link led to a phenomenon called spark alignment, a permanent connection between Faith and Arcee.

Faith and Arcee travel to Sunnydale to meet Rupert Giles, a member of the Watchers Council, and Buffy Summers, the other Vampire Slayer. Things do not go well, especially because an attack by an ancient Cybertronian warrior drone ruins any chance at keeping the Autobots' existence a secret from Sunnydale's defenders. Now revealed to Buffy and her friends, they join forces to explore Sunnydale's underground area and find an old Autobot fortress, as well as a Decepticon shuttle craft. Before they can explore further, though, the whole place vanishes in an explosion.

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**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 1 of 6: Now Arriving**

The race of cybernetic shape shifters known as the Transformers had long ago developed a very expedient and rapid method of travelling across both planetary and interstellar distances. Using the invention known as the space bridge, they utilized space folding (or transwarp) technology to shorten distances (and travel times) to near zero. The Earth-based Autobots had erected a global space bridge network that allowed them to instantly travel to many key regions of the planet and the network was only growing.

To travel interstellar distances was a bit more difficult, but no less doable. It just required space bridge terminals on both ends of the journey, a sender and a receiver. Cybertron, home planet of the Transformers, sported many such space bridge terminals that connected it to the many different worlds where the Autobots were active. One such terminal led to the planet Earth, more specifically the secret underground installation called Autobase, buried half a mile underneath Tokyo.

Optimus Prime was currently awaiting an incoming traveller from Cybertron, having gotten word that the first group of reinforcements was underway. The events in Sunnydale had convinced the Autobot Council of Elders that Earth might just be a bit more important than anyone had originally thought, so they agreed with his demand for more troops. He had received their files just minutes ago.

Optimus knew who was in charge of troop assignments. Kup, possibly the oldest Autobot currently living and a veteran of many wars, was a close friend and comrade and wouldn't send him anything but the best. Still, he couldn't help but wonder if Kup's professionalism hadn't been compromised just the tiniest bit this time around, considering whose name was on the list.

The space bridge flared to life, bridging hundreds of light years in an instant, and a group of three Transformers set foot on Earth for the first time.

"Optimus Prime, sir," the senior Autobot of the group saluted him. "Autobots Blurr, Downshift and Hot Rod reporting for duty."

"At ease, men," Optimus said. "Welcome to planet Earth. I trust you have all been briefed on this assignment and are ready to take up your duties without delay?"

All three nodded.

"Very well, then carry on. Prowl will hand out your patrol duties. Hot Rod, stay for a minute?"

Blurr and Downshift exited the space bridge chamber, leaving Optimus Prime alone with the flame-coloured Autobot warrior. Hot Rod had barely changed from the last time Optimus had seen him, his reformatting to an Earth-based alternate mode had actually required but very few alterations. From the way he was moving, Optimus also saw that the young hothead's restlessness was also very much intact. He hadn't gotten the name Hot Rod for nothing, after all.

"I'll say this but once and then we won't talk of it again," Optimus said, looking Hot Rod in the optics. "I kind of expected you to somehow convince Kup to reassign you here after I let Arcee send that message and I can't say I'm completely happy about it."

"Optimus, sir, Kup wouldn't have assigned me here if he wasn't convinced that I was good enough for..."

"I am not questioning your competence or your abilities, Hot Rod," Optimus interrupted him. "You are an excellent warrior; your record speaks for itself. I am questioning whether or not you will be able to put the mission first when there are other... priorities on your mind."

Neither had to mention what, or who rather, that priority might be.

"I am a professional, sir," Hot Rod just said. "Just like her."

"And I expect both of you to remain that way. Very well, soldier. Dismissed! See Prowl to get your patrol assignment!"

Hot Rod left the room, feeling a bit down after his encounter with the Autobots' commander-in-chief. His mood brightened considerably, though, once he received his patrol route from Prowl. It seemed that, despite his stern words, Optimus was a bit of a softy at heart.

Why else would he have assigned Hot Rod to patrol the western coast of the United States, the part of the planet where a certain town called Sunnydale was located?

--------------------------------

Sunnydale was, at first glance, nothing but an average suburban town, no different from hundreds of others across America. Most people never went beyond that first glance, so they missed that Sunnydale was a very special place. At least once the sun went down.

Sunnydale was the location of a Hellmouth, a supernatural convergence that attracted all sorts of supernatural beings and critters. No one really knew exactly what it was. Some thought it a portal to Hell, others a natural phenomenon that amplified magical energies, still others didn't give a damn and just went there for the power it contained. Sunnydale's population of vampires, demons, and assorted creatures was as large, if not larger, than its merely human population.

The vampire population had grown by three this night, in fact. All of them arriving in very different ways.

--------------------------------

The black limousine stopped in front of a non-descript building and the driver quickly headed to the back to open its door. The vampire that emerged had been a black man in life, but skin colour meant little to him now. He was immaculately dressed, looking sharp as a razor, and ready to take on the world. His name was Mr. Trick.

Mr. Trick considered himself to be the front runner of a new breed of vampires. The kind that didn't hang out in crypts or slept in coffins. The kind that didn't dress in black capes or outdated clothing. The kind that didn't run around and just killed for food like any wild animal. No, Mr. Trick considered himself far above the usual riffraff that made of the vampire population.

He was a businessman and business was what had brought him to this town. Someone was in need of his unique talents, someone willing to pay handsomely for his services, someone who knew how to pick the best. Not only was Mr. Trick one of the best-connected demons in the entire world, he also belonged to a very select group of vampires: Those that had encountered the Vampire Slayer, the dreaded bane of their kind, and lived to be droll about it.

"Sunnydale, eh?" Trick said to no one in particular, breathing in the scent of the place. "What's so special about this place anyway?"

As a vampire he could, of course, feel the dark emanations of the Hellmouth under his feet, calling to his demonic nature. He had known about Sunnydale for quite some time, but so far avoided the place. A Hellmouth was no place for a businessman, really, as it tended to attract those who wanted to destroy the world for whatever warped reason. Mr. Trick didn't want to destroy the world. He didn't understand why anyone would want to destroy the world, in fact. He really liked this world and all the opportunities it offered to a smart businessman such as himself.

He had gotten a handsome payment up-front, though, so he came to the Hellmouth. The customer was always right, after all. Insane, maybe. Grotesquely misguided, possibly. Incompetent, all too often. But always right.

Mr. Trick had yet to meet his newest clients, but after suffering through his most recent one, he was quite certain that he could handle just about anything Sunnydale was about to throw at him.

--------------------------------

Mr. Trick didn't know it, but said client he had just been thinking of was actually much closer than he would have suspected. Said client being a vampire several thousand years old, going by the name of Kakistos.

Kakistos was almost the exact opposite of Mr. Trick: Ancient, old-fashioned, steeped deeply in vampire lore, and demonic to the point where he couldn't resume his original human shape anymore. He was also massively powerful and his favourite pastime was confronting -and killing- Vampire Slayers.

His encounter with the most recent Vampire Slayer, the girl Faith, had taken a turn for the worse, though. He had managed to kill the girl's Watcher and send her running, but it had cost him one of his eyes. And Faith had recovered to face him once more, aided by a strange mechanical being of tremendous strength and fighting skill, and together the two of them had beaten him.

They had beaten him. Those words left an ashen taste in his mouth. In thousands of years he had never been beaten. It was him that did the beating. It was him who hunted and killed the bane of his kind, the Slayer. More than two dozen Slayers had died under his hands, most of them stronger and more experienced than Faith. That this slip of a girl had beaten him, help or no help, was a tremendous insult to someone such as him.

Kakistos was filled with the need for revenge, but he was also quite intelligent and knew better than to rush headlong into another battle. Faith was stronger now than the first time he had faced her and she had help. So after he recovered from the wounds of their second battle he did not go after them again, not immediately anyway.

If the Vampire Slayer acquired help, well, then it was only prudent for him to do the same. And a vampire of his age and power found help easily, especially in a place like Sunnydale where the vampire population numbered in the hundreds.

Soon it would be time for their third battle, he mused. Then his little Faith would find out just what she had gotten herself into. And that machine being by her side, whatever it was, wherever it came from, would be recycled into spare parts. Soon.

--------------------------------

In yet another part of Sunnydale the third and final vampire to arrive in town this night was about to make his appearance. An abandoned mansion in Crawford Street became the site of his arrival. Had an Autobot been present, he or she might have been fooled into thinking that a space bridge was opening here, but it was actually something very different.

A space bridge folded the fabric of time and space. The phenomenon currently taking place inside the mansion did not fold, it ripped. A tear opened up, a hole in reality, a gateway to a realm that most people didn't even believe existed. It was actually the second time such a hole had been opened in this place and, just like the first time, but a single individual made his way through and crossed over from one dimension to another.

The vampire known as Angel, sometimes called Angelus depending on his state of mind and soul, crumbled to the floor in a heap as the tear in space-time closed behind him. Three months ago he had been sent on what everyone involved had believed to be a one-way-trip into Hell. Now he was back. Considering the schizophrenic nature of his existence, though, no one could exactly be sure which Angel it was that had returned here tonight.

Amber demon eyes opened, his face shifted into its demonic aspect, and Angel escaped into the darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED


	26. The Boys Are Back in Town, p2 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 2 of 7: Meeting New People**

-----------------------------------

"So how many different worlds have you raced on?" Faith asked.

The Vampire Slayer and her Autobot friend were lying on their backs and staring up at the star-sprinkled night sky. It was four o'clock in the morning, Faith had just finished a long patrol through the demon-infested streets of the town that was their temporary home. The night was almost over and the two were taking a well-deserved break.

"Oh, I lost count," Arcee said playfully.

Faith snorted. "As if, Ms. Computer-for-brains! So spill, how many?"

Arcee shook her head, smiling. These last two weeks had been anything but restful, but she didn't mind. After being stuck doing nothing but wait and train for months on end, she actually enjoyed the challenge that being in Sunnydale represented. Things were never quiet or boring around here. About every other night someone tried to destroy the world or something. She was having a blast.

"Okay, by my last count it was forty-seven. But one battle-field pretty much looks like any other after you've gone a few rounds with Decepticons."

Faith looked at her friend, her sharp eyes easily making out her huge shape in the near-total darkness around them. Looking at Arcee, it was easy to forget that her pink-and-white coloured friend was actually a trained soldier, veteran of a war that had lasted thousands of years. She wondered how her friend managed to be so together after all the things she had lived through.

"Must be like dark alleys," Faith mused. "Every city seems to have those and vampires love them."

"Los Angeles seemed to have an inordinate amount of dark alleys," Arcee added, thinking back to her short stay in the city of angels.

"My Watcher told me that LA was one of the major hotspots of demonic activity in America," Faith told her. "Sometimes I think the presence of the nasties influences people's building habits. They seem to go out of their way to provide the vamps with hunting grounds."

Arcee pondered this. She had read up a lot on the various demonic entities she had encountered since meeting Faith and while a lot of what she had read was undoubtedly fiction, there were some things that had gotten her thinking.

Humans, for the most part, seemed very inclined to ignore or rationalise any and every supernatural thing that happened around them. Vampires? Gangs on PCP. Bite marks? Death by barbeque fork. A dozen other examples came to mind. Was it just part of the human condition? Or was there something about supernatural entities that subconsciously manipulated humans into ignoring them? Maybe the same thing that made it almost impossible for Cybertronian senses to register magical energies? It was worth further investigation.

One thing that was almost constantly on her mind these days was Faith's initial impression of the Sweep drone they had fought when first coming to Sunnydale. To Arcee it had been just another Decepticon. According to Faith, though, the war machine had given off something she called a 'vibe'. Meaning it felt like some sort of supernatural bad guy to her Slayer-given senses.

Which got Arcee wondering quite a bit. The Autobots still didn't know much about the Sweeps and where they came from. They had appeared out of nowhere thousands of years ago along with the short-lived Decepticon leader called Galvatron, whose origins were equally shrouded in mystery. After the end of the Great War those not destroyed in the fighting had disappeared again just as suddenly..

Was it possible they were somehow magical in nature? Or was it something about the Decepticons' nature that gave them an 'evil vibe'? Unfortunately Faith had never encountered an 'ordinary' Decepticon, so there was no way to compare the two.

"What's with the heavy thoughts?" Faith asked, picking up on Arcee's preoccupation.

"Nothing specific," she answered. "Wondering about the Sweep, the Autobot fortress, and all the open questions we have. Two weeks and nothing to show for it."

"Well, we did save the world once during that time," Faith grinned. "That's gotta count for something."

Frankly, it still amazed Arcee quite a bit. Not so much the fact that they had managed to stop a demonic cult from unleashing some kind of supernatural firestorm that would have cleansed the Earth of all non-demonic life, though that had been spectacular enough all by itself. No, what amazed her so was the casual way in which both Faith and the strangely-named Scooby Gang –the band of teenagers led by the other Slayer Buffy Summers- took this near-apocalypse in stride. It was just another night for them.

"It does," Arcee said. "Still, I'd feel a lot better if we had found some clue about our little Decepticon visitors. Any clue, really."

Arcee and her Autobot comrades had conducted extensive surveys of Sunnydale's underground, but there was no trace, neither of the Autobot fortress that had lurked down there, nor of the Decepticon assault shuttle that had apparently been the source of the Sweep. If either had survived the proton warhead explosion there was no trace of them. And no clue why they had been here in the first place.

This Hellmouth that was in Sunnydale, the apparent source of most of the weirdness here, was a blind spot as far as the Cybertronians were concerned. It sent out no energy they could detect. Having it described as a dimensional convergence of some sort had originally led them to believe it might be some kind of transwarp phenomenon, but that had been a faulty conclusion. If not for the sense of evil and dread Arcee got every time she tuned into the spark alignment between her and Faith, she would have confidently stated that there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about this town.

"We'll find out," Faith assured her. "Prowl put that tracking gizmo on the fortress, so if it pops up anywhere near, we'll know. And now that I know the feel of those Sweep things, I'll know when one of them is near again. We're covered."

Arcee was distracted from Faith's words when her proximity sensors went off. Someone was coming, a Cybertronian life form. Her internal computer needed but a moment to identify its friend/foe signal and a huge smile spread on her metal lips a moment later.

"We have a visitor, Faith," she told her human friend.

-----------------------------------

Faith was on her feet in a blur, falling into a fighting stance and checking out the surroundings.

"It's a friend," Arcee calmed her down. "An Autobot."

"Oh, okay," Faith relaxed. "Which one?"

Her question was answered when the Autobot in question made his entrance. A red sports car with yellow flames painted on its hood and a yellow spoiler on the back screeched to a halt next to them. A moment later it transformed into robot mode.

Faith blinked, a memory almost overcoming her. She knew this 'Bot. Oh, she had never met him before in person, but she had shared memories with Arcee over their spark alignment link and one of them had featured this guy rather prominently. Some details were different, but the basic look was the same.

"Hot Rod, I presume," she said.

The newcomer was a head taller than Arcee and somewhat broader. The car's hood had become his chest, the spoiler like wings on his back. He was mostly red, with some yellow and silver highlights. An easy smile slipped onto his metal face.

"Hello, ladies," he said, giving Faith but a brief glance before his gaze fixed on Arcee. "Miss me?"

Arcee didn't answer him; instead she just walked up to him and... did something. Faith blinked as the spark alignment became active and she felt sensations flooding over the link. Arcee and Hot Rod were simply touching, nothing outwardly extraordinary, but by virtue of their connection Faith could tell they were actually doing much more than the naked eye could see. Much, much more.

She almost blushed as she watched -and experienced- the Cybertronian equivalent of a very, very passionate kiss.

"I guess you did," Hot Rod said a moment later, his voice laced with excitement.

Arcee just smirked at him.

-----------------------------------

X-Brawn was a rather atypical Autobot warrior. Most Autobots weren't into fighting at all. It went against their base programming, their original purpose as builders and maintainers. Those Autobots that did take up fighting to protect their people from the Decepticons usually did so reluctantly. The best example was Optimus Prime himself, arguably the greatest warrior the Autobots ever produced, who wouldn't mind at all if he never had to fight again.

X-Brawn was different. He liked fighting. He loved a good scrap. It helped, of course, that he was among the strongest Autobots, able to tear the average Decepticon apart with a single well-placed blow from his outrageously strong left arm.

As a result he was one of the few who kind of mourned the end of the Great War against the Decepticons. Oh, he certainly did not mind the fact that Cybertron was now under Autobot control and their people free to enjoy their lives after thousands of years under Decepticon yoke, but he missed the pleasure of pounding 'Cons into scrap metal.

Sunnydale, while not quite comparable to the more memorable battle fields he'd been on, was a nice distraction if nothing else. It sported all kinds of creatures that needed a good pounding. The local defender, Buffy Summers, had given him a crash course in the do's and don't's when it came to the supernatural night life during the last two weeks. He really liked the little blond. Her friends kind of annoyed him, what with all their gushing over meeting actual alien robots, but she was just fine in his opinion.

He loved smashing demons and vampires. There was something extremely satisfying about stomping one of those parasite creatures into sticky paste. The only thing he regretted was that most of them weren't big and strong enough to give him a real work-out. Vampires, for example, while formidable when compared to mere humans, weren't really a match for an Autobot in a one-on-one situation.

At least, he reminded himself, the run-of-the-mill variety weren't. He had seen Arcee's recordings of her battle against the one called Kakistos. Now that was a scrap he wouldn't have minded being in and he kind of hoped that, should the ancient vampire make a return appearance, he'd be there to match his strength and skill against him. Still, one took what one could get in the meantime.

So when X-Brawn saw a vampire sneaking through the town -a naked one? What was that all about?- he quickly decided that it needed a good stomping.

Said vampire -known as Angel to those familiar with him- was rather shocked when the silver SUV in front of him transformed into a towering metal robot and raised his giant foot to stomp him into the dirt.

TO BE CONTINUED


	27. The Boys Are Back in Town, p3 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 3 of 7: Levels of Evil**

---------------------------------------------

"Any refreshments, Mr. Trick?" the man introduced as Mr. Jones asked.

"No thank you," the vampire in question replied, taking a seat. "I already drank before coming in."

"Good, good," the second man said. His name was probably not Smith, but that was how he had introduced himself. "Straight to business then."

Mr. Trick took a moment to study the two men who had contacted him about a delicate job. Human, or so it seemed, but with a very unnatural air about them. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. Both were dressed in immaculate black suits and looked nearly identical, one a bit older and taller than the other, but that was all. Brothers, he figured. Or something close to that.

"I have been told you want me to track down a certain object for you," Trick began.

"Quite so, Mr. Trick. Mr. Jones?"

The younger man put a folder in front of Trick. Inside was a sketch of the object in question. Roughly ovoid in shape, it looked like a glowing ball held inside some kind of protective shell with a handle on each side.

"It is called the Matrix," Mr. Smith said. "It is very old and valuable. And I'm afraid getting it has proven to be difficult."

"Someone doesn't want to part with it?" Trick speculated, grinning.

"Exactly, Mr. Trick. We have employed the services of others in this matter but they, I am loathe to say, proved to be lacking. We have been told that you are of a somewhat higher standard."

"I work hard for that kind of reputation," the vampire replied. "Where can I find this object?"

"It is currently in the possession of a being called Optimus," Mr. Jones told him. "We do not know his exact whereabouts."

Trick raised an eyebrow, both because of the unusual name and the choice of the term 'being'.

"I take it this 'Optimus' is not your run-of-the-mill helpless human, is he?"

Mr. Smith shrugged. "If he were, we would not need your services, Mr. Trick. No, Optimus is, I must say, a being of exceptional strength and conviction. Thankfully his knowledge of all things supernatural is quite limited and he has very little idea as to the prize that is in his possession. We want to keep it that way."

"I see. I will need more information on this man. Do you possess any clues as to his location?"

"Well, we have one clue. If you would turn the page?"

Trick did so, finding a picture of a familiar-looking teenage girl underneath the sketch of the Matrix.

"I believe you are familiar with this person, yes?" Smith asked.

"Faith the Vampire Slayer," Trick nodded. "A friend of this Optimus?"

"We are not fully informed about the details of their relationship, but we do know that this Faith knows where Optimus and the Matrix can be found. Though she will probably require some... persuasion in order to make her part with this information."

"I can be a very persuasive person," Trick chuckled.

---------------------------------------------

Vampires, as a species, were rather similar to humans in the sense that they could roughly be categorised into two groups: Leaders and followers. The largest part of the vampire population, while scary and intimidating to most humans, were little more than sheep, really. Their lives revolved around their thirst for blood and many of them spent their entire time hunting for sustenance, nothing else. This kind of vampire seldom lasted more than a few decades, a century tops, before they perished either at the hands of the Slayer, an angry crowd, or simple carelessness in the morning hours.

The other group of vampires, oftentimes called Master Vampires, were a different breed. Oh, many of them had once been sheep themselves. It was almost inevitable, seeing as the thirst for blood was so overpowering in their first few years of existence. It left room for little else. But they overcame the thirst, at least to the degree that it didn't define their entire existence, and as they grew older they also grew more powerful.

The Master Vampire known as Kakistos was thousands of years old, possibly the oldest vampire currently in existence. He had been a vampire for so long that returning to his human countenance was no longer possible for him. The demonic essence that animated the once-human corpse had so thoroughly permeated his being that it could no longer be suppressed. Not that he cared for having a human face anyway.

Other vampires almost inevitably flocked to Master Vampires. Their power drew them in, the strength of the evil they radiated without even trying was like freshly spilled blood to the lower demons. They came, they served, they hoped to gain more power through association.

Meaning that Kakistos found it quite easy to gather a following here in Sunnydale. The fact that he did not care one bit about any of his followers and fully expected most of them to perish in his upcoming rematch against the Vampire Slayer and her machine friend escaped the sheep. Kakistos felt little more than disdain for them.

Soon he would have his revenge. And Faith, his little Faith, would take an eternity to die.

---------------------------------------------

The town of Sunnydale was an epicentre for all things evil. The Hellmouth that was lying buried beneath the city attracted demons and supernatural forces. Those few who knew about it often wondered what had possessed the original settlers to build their city here.

There was but one man who could answer that question, for it was him who had done the possessing.

Mayor Richard Wilkins III. was, as far as most citizens of his town were concerned, the grandson of the city's original Mayor and a likeable, friendly, if slightly eccentric man who worked hard for the good of his community.

In reality, though, he was the city's original Mayor, kept young by means of many magic spells and demonic treaties. He had founded and carefully nurtured this town for one purpose and one purpose only. For Richard Wilkins was one of but very few entities in this or any other world who knew the true nature of the Hellmouth. And he fully intended to take advantage of it.

Being a powerful wizard and well-connected, he was well-aware of the fact that his beautiful town had recently acquired some new citizens, not all of them human. It worried him, especially after that incident in the caves near the Hellmouth recently, but he was a patient man and had long ago learned that things usually fell into place for the one who planned carefully and didn't panic.

Primus' Chosen were in town, at least some of them. For some reason they cooperated with the Vampire Slayer, which was worrisome. Then there was Kakistos, a powerful Master Vampire who didn't play well with others, be they good or evil. And then there was the matter of the big boom underground. Had it worked? Had the massive Autobot installation been destroyed? Wilkins couldn't be certain and that worried him more than anything else.

For now, though, he would wait and see. With any luck Kakistos would take care of some of his problems, maybe they'd even take care of each other. As for the rest, well... some friends of his would be arriving soon. If all else failed, he was positive they'd be all too willing to help. Especially if they could kill some of those transforming car robots in the process.

---------------------------------------------

Despite his sorry state, the vampire most commonly known as Angel was not just any run-of-the-mill demon. Over two centuries old, he had at one time been the most feared of his kind, more sadistic and cruel than any other. A member of the feared Order of Aurelius, he was also more powerful than most vampires his age had a right to be and had in the past successfully gone one-on-one with the Vampire Slayer.

Unlike other vampires, Angel (or Angelus, as he had been known then) had never been the kind to enter a battle simply for battle's sake. As one of his family members had once put it, he only entered fights he knew he would win. And faced with a towering alien robot that seemed intent to stomp him into the dirt, even the animalistic wreck of a creature he had become knew that discretion was the better part of valor.

X-Brawn, the alien robot in question, moved a lot faster than his bulk suggested, but Angel was faster still. The vampire's form almost blurred as he moved out of the way, causing the Autobot's massive foot to hit nothing but dirt and concrete.

"Get back here, you punk," X-Brawn growled at him.

Angel only snarled at him in response, human speech beyond his mental capacity at the moment. X-Brawn moved to pursue him, but the vampire quickly made his way between the houses and into the darkness, instinct telling him that his much larger foe would have trouble following.

X-Brawn hesitated for a moment. Normally he would have just charged after the creature, but he was under orders not to be spotted by civilians if at all possible. Wrecking houses in pursuit of a vampire would certainly put him in violation of those orders.

That slight hesitation was all Angel needed. Without a heat signature for X-Brawn's sensors to spot, the vampire easily lost his pursuer amidst the shadows and vanished.

"Slag," X-Brawn cursed. "A naked vampire giving me the slip. Must be getting old."

Transforming back into his vehicle mode, X-Brawn continued his patrol of Sunnydale, unaware that, just a few blocks away, said naked vampire was about to run into a certain blonde Vampire Slayer.

---------------------------------------------

"That is so evil," Faith muttered, pressing her hands to her ears in a futile attempt to keep out the sensations flooding across her link to Arcee.

She had often wondered about the spark alignment. Sometimes it was a blessing, sometimes a curse, sometimes just bothersome. Now, though, it was evil. Pure evil. It was the only explanation she could come up with for why it had chosen this time of all to become active once more.

She really didn't need any sort of shared awareness with Arcee while her robotic friend was having alien cybernetic robot sex with her boy toy Hot Rod.

"Evil," she muttered, "all of them!"

TO BE CONTINUED


	28. The Boys Are Back in Town, p4 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 4 of 7: Naked Vamps, Sex Vibes, and Pissed Slayers**

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"I'm so sorry about this, Faith!"

Faith looked at Arcee and figured that, if alien robots were capable of blushing, her friend would be beet-red by now. She had just told Arcee about their little shared awareness thing happening right during the Autobot's quality time with her significant other. To say that Arcee was embarrassed was putting it mildly.

"I take it you didn't notice anything?" Faith asked, smirking. "Too preoccupied?"

Faith didn't know whether Autobots could die from embarrassment, but it seemed she'd find out tonight.

"I… was distracted," Arcee simply said, looking away.

Determined to extract some payment from her friend, Faith continued. "So how does this work exactly? I mean, I doubt you have girl parts anymore than he has boy parts, right?"

Arcee sat down, still not meeting Faith's eyes.

"I... he... no, neither of us has... parts like that. We don't reproduce sexually, so... no such parts."

"But you still managed to have lots of fun," Faith kept prodding, all the while projecting the air of an innocent, inquisitive school girl. "I certainly felt that. I'm just unclear as to the mechanics of the thing."

"It's... Faith, do we really have to...?"

"Hey, you made me share the whole thing. I just wanna know how it works for future reference."

Arcee groaned, praying to Primus that the spark alignment would never again choose to become active during make-out sessions with Hot Rod. She was not embarrassed about the fact she'd had sex, no. Cybertronians didn't hold to the taboos humans did. She was just acutely embarrassed that a human, little more than a child, had been forced to share the experience.

"It's complicated, Faith. Hot Rod and I... it involves the interlocking of our neural networks and some Energon transfer... it's really quite technical."

"And enjoyable, too."

After a moment's hesitation Arcee nodded, a smile playing across her metallic lips. "Oh yeah!"

"You girls talking about me?"

Faith looked up to see Hot Rod approaching. He was quite the impressive figure in robot mode and some part of her was still caught in the intense afterglow Arcee had been feeling just a few minutes ago. She shook her head. To think that she'd have the hots for an alien robot, even if it was just second-hand hots…

"Down, boy," she told him. "Girls don't share girl talk with boys, got me?"

Hot Rod smiled at her. Whoever had named him had gotten right to the core of his character, Faith mused. And his alternate mode, a sleek red sports car, also fit him to a T.

"How long can you stay?" Arcee asked, getting back to her feet.

"I'm due back at HQ in seven hours," he answered, slipping an arm around her waist. "I was hoping you'd show me some of the sights around here. I hear they have some pretty exotic bad guys to stomp in these parts."

"You've been talking to X-Brawn, right?"

"Maybe."

Faith shook her head at the sight of the two love birds. It was so sweet it was giving her cavities. It also reminded her that she hadn't gotten any in quite some time. Not since before the whole thing with Kakistos had started anyway. All the Slaying she had done since coming to Sunnydale had wound her up but good and getting second-hand sex vibes beamed into her head certainly hadn't helped much.

The worst thing was, though, that she had felt more than pleasure from Arcee across the alignment. Arcee was very much in love with Hot Rod and she had felt that, too. And that feeling put just about everything she'd ever felt for a guy to shame, made all her sexual encounters seem empty by comparison. She didn't like that feeling one bit.

"It's almost sunrise," Faith said, causing the two enamoured Autobots to remember her presence. "I'm gonna head in and get some shut-eye. You two good without me?"

As if she had to ask.

"Arcee, come in, this is X-Brawn!"

The voice of their Autobot friend was coming across Arcee's com link and made Faith pause. X-Brawn had gladly taken up vampire hunting (or stomping, rather) for the time he was going to be stuck here in Sunnydale while looking for traces of Decepticons. Buffy had given him some pointers and ever since the vampire population of this town had dropped considerably.

"Arcee here. What is it?"

"Just needed some input on vampire stuff and figured you'd be hanging with one of our two experts. Faith there?"

"I'm here, Brawny," Faith yelled, walking closer to Arcee. "What's the bad?"

"Just wondering, is it normal for some vampires to walk around naked?"

Faith paused. "Did you say naked?"

"Yeah, naked. Big guy, for a human at least, muscled, snarling, growling, and naked. Not up for intelligent conversation, either."

"Can't say I ever heard of vampires hunting in the buff, Brawny," Faith admitted. "Wouldn't put it past the bloodsuckers, though. He look hot?"

"Are you really asking an alien robot whether a vampire is looking hot?" Arcee asked, smirking.

"Hey, I figure what with the whole 'no-such-parts' thing Brawny wouldn't be embarrassed about judging the hotness of another guy."

"'No-such-parts' thing?" X-Brawn asked, confused.

"Private joke, forget it," Arcee told him.

"Well, anyway, it seemed to me that he wasn't a run-of-the-mill kind of vamp," X-Brawn continued after a moment. "A lot quicker than any of the spare change, anyway. Moved so fast my sensors had trouble keeping up."

Now Faith was a bit worried. Rule of thumb was that vampires got stronger, faster, and meaner the older they got. Kakistos had been able to match strength with Arcee despite their vast difference in size and he'd been quick as hell, too. X-Brawn wasn't the fastest of Autobots, sure, but to have taxed his sensors... that had to be quite fast.

"I'm gonna ask G-man about it when I check in later today," Faith said, referring to Buffy's Watcher Rupert Giles, who was also her Watcher until the Council got around to assigning her a new one. Not that she was looking forward to anyone replacing Clarice.

Yawning, she pushed those thoughts aside for now.

"It's almost dawn anyway," she told her friends. "All the creepies will be heading in. How about we meet up at dusk. If that vamp you met is in any way special we can hunt for him then. Maybe my Slayer senses can sniff him out."

"Okay," X-Brawn agreed. "I'll meet you two ladies at sundown then."

Hot Rod looked a bit down at hearing that. "I'll have to be back at Autobase by then. Maybe I can convince Optimus to let me join you."

"Not a good idea, Hot Rod," Arcee told him. "I would think Prime wasn't too happy having both of us in the same unit in the first place. Don't go asking him for favours like that, okay?"

Hot Rod sighed, agreeing. "Okay, you're right. But I will be by the moment I get some free time, okay?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Spare me the love-sick robots, okay?" Faith grumbled, heading off to bed.

------------------------------------

The following night the Slayer met up with two Autobots and went on the hunt. Hot Rod had returned to Autobase and was probably out on patrol in some other part of the world right now. Thankfully he and Arcee had refrained from any further activity (or maybe Arcee had just managed to keep the alignment quiet), so Faith had gotten a good, solid ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.

"This is where you saw your naked vamp?" Faith asked.

Both Arcee and X-Brawn were in vehicle form to keep from drawing any attention to themselves. Faith was driving Arcee's bullet bike form, while X-Brawn featured a holographic driver that looked somewhat like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Yeah, right here," the larger Autobot said. "And he vanished between the buildings in that direction."

"Okay, let's snoop around somewhat."

Arcee put herself in gear and drove a slow pace in the direction X-Brawn had indicated. Faith, who looked like she was driving but did little more than hold onto the handles, let her Slayer senses sweep as wide as she could, looking for any particularly strong blip on her internal radar.

During her brief stay in Sunnydale she had already begun to realise that the vast supernatural presence in the town was starting to swamp her senses. Buffy, who had been here for over two years already, had a lot more trouble sensing vamps than Faith. Made sense, really. She was constantly being bombarded by demonic vibes, so eventually her senses started shutting down from sheer overload. If she stayed here longer, Faith was certain the same would happen to her.

Speaking of the other Slayer, they had swung by Buffy's place earlier, but she was out and no one seemed to know where she was. So they had gone on the hunt without her.

"Anything?" X-Brawn asked, driving along behind them, eager for a fight. It seemed to really irk him that a vamp -a naked vamp at that- had gotten away from him.

"Not yet."

"I'm scanning for human life signs," Arcee added. "Most of the houses down this street are empty. Good place for vamps to hide?"

They went down the various streets, looking for any sign of naked vampires. They found no less than six vampires during their hunt, but all of them were clothed. X-Brawn made certain to compare their faces to his recordings, but none of them was the vamp in question.

Four hours and six piles of dust later Faith was getting slightly frustrated.

"Brawny, I don't think your naked guy is making a return appearance tonight. Or maybe he just got himself some clothes."

She had talked briefly with the G-man, but the Watcher had never heard of any vampires that preferred running around naked, either. As best as he could figure the demon in question had probably been in some kind of dire straits that had left him running for his life, especially since X-Brawn had described him as more beast than man.

Faith was about to propose that they abandon their search for tonight when she suddenly felt a tingle on the back of her neck. Something was there. Something more than just another run-of-the-mill vampire. It felt... stranger. More powerful. Not quite as evil, weirdly enough, but... different.

"Let's check out that direction," she pointed.

"You sense anything?" Arcee asked.

"Not sure. Gimme some speed, biker girl!"

Speeding up, the two Autobots and their human passenger made a quick pace down the street and Faith's tingle intensified.

"Stop here," she yelled, causing the Autobots to hit their brakes. They came to a halt in front of a medium-sized mansion.

"There's something in there," Faith mumbled, now almost fully immersed in what she called Slayer mode. Getting off the bike, she withdrew her Cybertronian-made sword from the sheet on her back. It had quickly become her favourite weapon, seeing as it could cut through just about anything with ease.

"I'm picking up a single human life sign," Arcee said, having scanned the mansion.

"Better stay in vehicle mode for the moment then," X-Brawn added.

"I'll take a look on my own," Faith told them. "If you hear me screaming, come help. Otherwise you stay out here and keep a low profile, okay?"

"We should activate the alignment, Faith. That way I can keep apprised of what is happening in there."

Faith smirked. They had more or less learned to keep the alignment to a low level in most situations. Emphasis on the 'most' and the 'more or less'.

"Okay, biker girl, but you better not be sending any sex vibes my way again!"

"Why should I? You seem sex-obsessed enough all on your own," the Autobot shot back.

Giving her friend a 'Who? Me?' look, Faith then turned around and became all business. The weird feeling she got from the mansion had grown stronger. There was definitely something in there, something more dangerous than your average vampire. Add a human to the equation, Faith figured she didn't have that much time to be sneaky.

The door wasn't locked and the place looked as if no one had used it in quite some time. There were some suspicious looking piles of dust in one corner. Vampire remains? Faith wished she'd managed to get a hold of Buffy. The blonde might get on her nerves sometimes, but she knew the lay of the land much better than Faith did. Maybe this was the sight of one of her old battles.

A snarling sound from the next room caught Faith's attention and she quickly moved forward, peeking around the corner. Jackpot, she mused. There was a vampire who fit Brawny's description pretty good. Okay, he wasn't naked, but except for a black pair of pants he had no other clothes on. Close enough. Besides, he was giving off vampire vibes like crazy. Definitely a more powerful kind of vamp.

Somebody had apparently done her a favour, though. The vamp was chained up. Faith did a quick check of the room. No one in sight. Her Slayer senses couldn't pick up any other supernatural creepy crawlies, either. No sign of the human Arcee had spotted, but that was probably a blessing.

"Wicked décor, bloodsucker," Faith said, abandoning her hiding place to stride out in plain view. The vamp snarled at her and tore at his chains, but they held. Faith twirled her sword playfully.

"I like the chains thing, too," she said, smirking at him. "Let me guess. S and M didn't turn out quite the way you planned?"

The vampire seemed to sense who she was, because he got more agitated by the second. Faith figured she'd better slay him quickly. The chains looked solid, but the vampire seemed more beast than anything else and there were few things stronger or more dangerous than an animal fearing for its life.

"Under other circumstances I might even ask to join in, you're a nice piece of ass. But the whole vamp thing is kind of a turn-off. So say goodbye, naked guy!"

Faith raised her sword for a decapitation blow when two things happened at once. From the corner of her eye she noticed a small figure coming toward her at a blur. At the same time her senses picked up something new. Something familiar.

The figure barrelled into her and they both landed on the floor in a heap of arms and legs, Faith's sword clattering away into a corner. Faith was back on her feet in an instant, but so was the other one.

The familiar one.

"Don't you touch him," Buffy snarled at her.

TO BE CONTINUED


	29. The Boys Are Back in Town, p5 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 5 of 7: The Big Brawl**

--------------------------------------

"Fancy meeting you here, B," Faith said, facing her sister Slayer. "I was wondering what you were up to tonight, seeing as I couldn't get a hold of you. I guess I know now."

Buffy, standing between her and the chained-up half-naked vampire Faith had come here to slay, didn't move an inch.

"Faith, listen to me! I will explain everything, but I need your word that you won't touch him."

"Him?" Faith asked, nodding her head towards the vampire. "You mean the bloodsucker you keep chained up in some mansion? If he's not running around outside, I mean. What is this, some kind of science experiment? Field study of naked vampires? Or," she smirked, "have you gotten into a really kinky zone here, B?"

Buffy blushed heavily at that last part, but still didn't move out of the way. Behind her the vampire seemed to get more agitated by the second.

"I don't know how much you know about what went down here last year, Faith. This is Angel."

Angel? That name rang a bell. Oh yes, some of Buffy's little friends had mentioned something about a really bad vampire called Angel who almost brought the world to an end not too long ago. The boy Xander especially had used some really strong words (for him) to describe the vamp.

"Well, unless there is more than one Angel I guess your naked buddy here tried to wipe out the world, B. Still doesn't tell me why he isn't dust yet."

"He wasn't always a bad guy, Faith," Buffy shook her head. "When I first came to Sunnydale he helped me. Kept me alive more than once. He was cursed by Gypsies. They gave him a soul in order to make him pay for his crimes."

Faith almost stumbled as she felt her link with Arcee intensify tenfold. The Autobot had obviously heard Buffy's last words and her curiosity was piqued. A vampire with a soul? Or spark, as the Autobots called it? That was a first. Clarice had always told Faith that, once a vampire took over the body of a human, the soul was gone to wherever it was that souls went and all that remained was a monster that needed to be put down. That was one concept the Autobots had never been comfortable with.

"The curse broke, though," Buffy continued, oblivious to the invisible presence of Arcee in Faith's head. "He reverted to his evil self. That's whom you heard of, Faith. But he was cured. He's back the way he was."

Faith peeked around Buffy at the snarling creature in the chains.

"I see," she simply said.

"Well, not exactly all the way back," Buffy admitted. "He spent months in a hell dimension, Faith. They probably tortured him there. I don't know how he got back, but..."

"So we have a vamp who is sometimes good," Faith interrupted her, "but gets designs on wiping out the world whenever he has an off day? B, get your head in the game, girl! He's a vampire, you're a Vampire Slayer!"

Faith made a step forward. "And if you can't do the job, B, I guess it's up to me."

"Don't you dare!" Buffy didn't move an inch.

Faith considered her options. Buffy seemed set in her way and Faith was far from certain she could beat her one-on-one. She had some huge alien robots as back-up, of course, but from what she was feeling across the alignment from Arcee, she guessed her friends would rather want to observe and study this 'sparked-up' vampire rather than kill him.

Besides, she'd never before asked Arcee or any of the others to help her kill something. They had, of course, but only when circumstances forced them to. Faith knew how the Autobots felt about killing. She wouldn't ask them to do something that went so completely against their own nature... programming... whatever.

Her mind made up that she would be forced to handle this on her own, Faith made to advance on Buffy.

"Well, well, well," a new voice intruded. "If this isn't interesting."

Faith's blood froze upon hearing the voice. She knew that voice. And while the terror she felt upon hearing it had diminished recently, it was still quite present.

Kakistos, the ancient master vampire that had killed her Watcher, strode into the mansion, followed by at least two dozen other vampires in full game-face. Snarls and growls filled the air as the demons advanced on them, out for blood. Damn, she'd been so focused on Buffy and the half-naked vamp she'd completely missed these freaks setting off her Slayer senses.

"Two Slayers for the price of one," Kakistos grinned at her, then turned his single remaining eye towards Buffy. "I've heard of you, girl. I'll be right with you as soon as I've killed my little Faithy here."

The two Slayers shared a look, quickly and without words deciding that their differences could wait until later. A moment later they stood back to back as the vampires started surrounding them.

"How about a little help here, guys?" Faith yelled, trying to transmit the plea for help across the spark alignment as well.

"I assume you are speaking to your giant robot friend," Kakistos cackled. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about her. She is... occupied."

Faith got a brief image across the spark alignment of even more vampires swarming outside the building, attacking Arcee and X-Brawn. She had no doubt her friends could hack it, but even they needed time to stomp a big swarm of vampires into dust.

"Seems like we're on our own for the moment," she told Buffy.

"Figures," the blonde Slayer scoffed. "Vamps only get courageous enough to face us when they got us outnumbered twenty to one. Cowards!"

"Ah, the funny quips," Kakistos growled at them. "Won't be making them in a minute, girls. ATTACK!"

Conscious thought ceased to matter the moment the first vampire jumped them. Faith felt the Slayer inside her roar to life, felt the same happen to Buffy, felt an echo of Arcee going into full combat mode. The world around her snapped into sharp focus, all senses going into overdrive. Everything that moved was registered, everything that could be used as a weapon was instantly catalogued, every possible strategy mapped out in a heartbeat. It was an unconscious process for Faith, but it closely resembled the workings of her Autobot counterpart's battle computer.

Faith barely registered her sword taking the head of the first vampire. Her mind was already on the next one. And the next five after that. Once again the Slayer spirit she was avatar to performed flawlessly, instinct leading her on a tactical course that would allow her to take out a maximum number of foes with the least bit of fuss.

Buffy, who had been a Slayer longer but had a habit of fighting what she perceived as the loss of her humanity, unconsciously fell into step with Faith. The duo unconsciously played to each other's strengths. Buffy was a bit stronger, a bit faster, a bit more experienced. Faith was the better tactician, better at improvising, better at mapping out the flow of battle. Buffy allowed Faith to steer the battle, while Faith instinctively left the older and stronger vampires to the blonde while picking off the weaker ones at a rapid pace.

Kakistos observed the battle, not participating at first. The ancient vampire had fought dozens of Slayers over the centuries, many different girls with many different styles of fighting. He had beaten them all in the end. Granted, the current situation was quite original. Never before had there been two Slayers at the same time and never before had one of them been aided by giant robots. Still, he was Kakistos, the Slayer of Slayers. And Faith wouldn't get away from him again.

"Take the blonde," he yelled to his minions, who were biting the dust at an alarming rate. "Leave Faith to me!"

The vampires were only too happy to comply, figuring that swarming one Slayer would make the whole situation a little less lethal than it had turned out to be. Kakistos rushed towards Faith, who suddenly found herself without opponents, while Buffy was nearly overwhelmed by an onslaught of undead bodies.

With a terrifying roar the vampire known as Angel snapped the chains that held him and fell upon the creatures attacking the girl he loved like a rabid animal. Faith, who had a split second to register this, didn't have time to wrap her mind around this right now. One vampire killing other vampires to protect a Slayer? Weird. Still no time for that. Kakistos was upon her.

"We will finish this right now, girl," the ancient monster growled. "No robots, no Watchers, no one to aid you. Just you and me."

For the briefest of moments Faith was transported back to the worst moment of her life. Helpless, held down, impotent, forced to watch this monster she should have destroyed kill the one person who had given her life meaning. Clarice died before her eyes, died horribly, and she couldn't close her eyes. This was her failure, her weakness, her incompetence. And for an endless few weeks her life had been nothing but fear. For of this monster, fear for her life, fear that she would let people down again.

Not this time, she vowed. Never again. Kakistos would never bring pain to anyone ever again.

"Bring it on, bitch," she growled.

TO BE CONTINUED


	30. The Boys Are Back in Town, p6 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 6 of 7: Terror's End**

---------------------------------------------------

Arcee and X-Brawn were once again painfully reminded of the fact that their sensors, for all their sophistication, were all but useless when it came to spotting the supernatural. Arcee might have spotted something, considering that she was linked to Faith and could occasionally access her friend's mystical senses, but she'd been focused on the events transpiring inside the mansion, especially once Buffy mentioned that the vampire inside possessed a spark.

The attack came out of nowhere and the first warning they had was when a horde of vampires began whacking away at them with crowbars and steel axes. Any normal Earth car would have been totalled in seconds, but Arcee and X-Brawn were far from normal. What looked like glass, metal, and plastic was actually hardened Cybertronian battle steel. Still, vampires were more than they appeared, too, and quite unnaturally strong.

The two Autobots didn't need any words between them and transformed into their robot modes. The shifting process managed to throw most of the creatures off them, at least for a second, and gave them enough time to go into battle mode.

X-Brawn waded into the attacking demons with much enthusiasm, his enormous physical strength enough to turn any single vampire into pulp with a single punch. Arcee was nowhere near as strong, but made up for it with speed and lethal precision.

The vampires had obviously been warned about them, though, for they did not seem surprised by their appearance and stayed in close. Their small size and the close quarters effectively prevented Arcee and X-Brawn from using their energy weapons against them. And while the two Autobots were an easy match for any one vampire, the large numbers gave them pause.

"Faith is in trouble," Arcee yelled, picking up her friend's distress over the spark alignment. Kakistos was back. He was in there and Faith was alone. Well, not quite alone, but Buffy had her hands full.

"Try to make your way inside," X-Brawn yelled back. "The day I can't stomp a few dozen vampires into dust is the day I'll reconfigure myself for garbage disposal."

Arcee didn't hesitate. If X-Brawn said he could handle it, he could handle it. The moment she had a bit of breathing room she transformed back into her motorcycle form and accelerated for all she was worth. The sleek Japanese-style bullet bike shot forward like a bat out of hell. Spikes extended from her tires and one vampire who was too slow to get out of the way lost about three layers of skin on his face and torso. Arcee was past the attackers a moment later.

The front door of the mansion was not much of a hindrance and she reduced it to splinters on impact. Thankfully the main room was just high enough to accommodate her not-inconsiderable stature, so she transformed back into robot mode and skidded to a stop, her battle computer needing but a moment to assess the tactical situation.

There were twenty-three vampires currently in the room. Twenty-two of them were attacking Buffy. No, only twenty-one. The twenty-second was... helping her? That had to be Angel, the vampire with a spark. Arcee didn't really have the time to check whether the creature really emitted the specific wavelength the Autobots had come to associate with human sparks. For now it only mattered that he was helping Buffy against overwhelming odds.

The final vampire was fighting Faith and Arcee recognised him as Kakistos. Hard not to, seeing as the vampire had once nearly killed her and her friend. He was by far the most powerful vampire Arcee had ever encountered, strong and fast enough to match an Autobot in single combat despite the vast difference in size. Faith needed help and Arcee began to move.

Only to stop. A singular emotion drifted across the spark alignment and into her mainframe. If asked, she wouldn't have been able to put a single name to it. Fear. Determination. Anger. A sense of inevitability. And the unmistakable feeling that, in this singular instance, Faith didn't want her help.

Arcee processed all this in a microsecond and then changed directions to assist Buffy and Angel against the horde of vampires assaulting them. From the few seconds she saw it was clear that both the Slayer and the sparked vampire were stronger and more skilled than any of their opponents, but numbers were starting to overwhelm them.

Well, Arcee mused, a friend had once told her that overwhelming numbers were only a problem until you got out an equalizer.

A moment later Arcee's laser rifle materialised in her hand.

---------------------------------------------------

Buffy knew that she was going to die here. There were too many of the vampires. Even with another Slayer, even with Angel, there were just too many. Faith seemed dead-locked against the big vampire and the others were swarming her. She was fighting, but it would soon be over.

Then the vampires started burning as angry red laser beams started streaking through the room.

"Sorry I'm late," Arcee yelled, taking out vampires with lethal precision. "Couldn't find a parking space."

"Okay, you've officially hung out with Faith too long," Buffy yelled back, picking up a second wind in the face of this last-second cavalry. "Even my puns aren't that bad."

The vampires quickly wised up to the fact that the game was up. Arcee had positioned herself right in front of the main entrance with a broad corridor in front of her and a clear field of fire. The only hope the minions had had against these alien war machines had been to get in close and stay in close, overwhelming them by sheer numbers. That wasn't possible right now. The battle was lost.

They started running.

"Yeah, sure," Buffy yelled after them. "You better run or my giant alien robot friends will really get nasty."

"And that was supposed to be a better pun?" Arcee asked, bemused.

"Not really, but I just got kicked around by two dozen vampires, so give me a break, okay?"

Angel growled beside her, snarling at the only fight still going on inside the mansion. Buffy saw Faith exchanging blows with the mountainous vampire that had led the others in and was about to move in to help...

... only to be blocked by a huge hand that barred her way.

"Are you defective?" Buffy asked Arcee. "Faith needs help."

Arcee shook her head. "No. She needs to do this alone. Trust me."

Something in the robot's voice made Buffy trust her, so she did the hardest thing she'd done since sending the man she loved to Hell: She just stood by and watched someone else fight the big bad.

---------------------------------------------------

There was no more meaning to time, just an eternal now. The world outside the narrow confines of this fight didn't exist anymore. There was the faintest sensation of others present, both in the flesh and in her mind, but none of that mattered at this very moment.

For months now, an eternity for someone as young as her, the monster she was facing now had been the stuff of nightmares and primal terror. A grinning devil, spat out from hell, here on Earth but to torment her. He tore her life apart, just as it began to have meaning. He took the only person from her that had ever been worthy of the term parent. He filled her with such fear that she even considered killing herself, just to cheat him.

All that had changed. She was no longer that crying little girl. It had taken the confidence, the friendship, and the understanding of a friend to change it. More than a friend, really. A soul mate, if such a thing existed. Closer than a lover, closer than a sister. Someone who could have been here right now, fighting at her side. Someone who would have been here if she had not asked her not to be.

This was her fight. It had always been her fight. She had run from it. She'd had others fight it for her and beside her. No longer. This was her personal demon, her monster, her fear, her terror, her moment of truth. The point where she would prove whether or not she was worthy of being this world's defender, worthy of the trust of her friend, worthy of being the one to spare others the terrors she herself had undergone.

Like Arcee had once said, it was all about fear. In the past that fear had paralyzed her, made her run, made her impotent. To Kakistos her fear was an aphrodisiac, something he coveted above all else, something he wanted to cultivate and enjoy before he put an end to her. Her fear was his greatest weapon and he had used it with devastating effectiveness.

No more. It all came down to this moment. Her and him. Champion and monster. Slayer and vampire.

Was she afraid? Of course she was.

But that fear was no longer his weapon. Now it was hers. And in the end it didn't come down to strength. It didn't come down to experience. It didn't come down to any of the superhuman gifts both vampire and Slayer possessed.

What mattered was that she was the one who feared losing more. She was the one whose fear for the lives Kakistos would ruin and destory in the future was more powerful. She was the one who used that fear and forged it into a blade to strike at the heart of the monster before her.

Fear was her weapon now, not his. Without it he was just another vampire.

And she was the Slayer. There really could be but one outcome.

TO BE CONCLUDED


	31. The Boys Are Back in Town, p7 of 7

**The Boys are Back in Town  
Chapter 7 of 7: Complications**

---------------------------------

"So," Xander said slowly. "Angel."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "He's back."

Faith observed what was happening from the doors of the library, looking on as Buffy confessed to her friends and her Watcher that she'd hidden Angel's return from Hell from them. It wasn't a pretty sight. Those kid sidekicks of her sure had the righteous anger thing down pat, especially the boy, Xander. Still, it was probably better this way. God alone knew what might have happened had they found out on their own.

There was some more talking, but in the end it came down to them more or less trusting Buffy to do the right thing. Oh, there were some harsh words in there, but Faith had heard much harsher.

When the members of the strangely-named Scooby Gang began to trickle out of the library, Faith headed off Buffy.

"Bad vibes?" Faith asked, falling into step with her fellow Slayer.

"Vibes are bad. Not as bad as the vibes could be, but bad. I think I need to do some serious making up in the near future."

"You had your reasons," Faith said.

"Maybe. But I should have trusted them. Even though they don't trust me. Not when it comes to Angel."

Faith nodded. "About Angel... the 'bots are pretty curious about him."

"How so?"

"Well, they were never down with the whole 'all vampires must die' thing. Big respect for all sentient beings and all that jazz. Anyway, they're real interested in how Angel came to have a soul, or spark as they call it. Probably wanna find a way to spark-up all vamps so they don't need to be staked anymore."

Buffy gave her a smile. "I can imagine. Well, Willow has been over-hyper about getting a closer look at your robot friends anyway."

"Willow?" Faith asked, confused. "What's Red gotta do with stuff?"

"She's the one who restored Angel's soul. If anyone can explain a magical spell in terms a robot can understand, it's probably her."

They were walking out of the school building and toward the parking lot, where a certain bullet bike and a big grey SUV were waiting for them.

"Hey, biker girl," Faith greeted her friend. "Think you can arrange for our little redheaded witch in there to score a visit to Autobase? I think she and Ty would get along great. They could talk about computers and soul spells all night."

"Willow is the one responsible for the vampire with a spark?" Arcee asked for confirmation, receiving double nods from the Slayers. "Okay, I will take it up with Prime."

"You off to see your vampire boy toy?" Faith asked Buffy while climbing unto Arcee.

"Yeah. He's better, more lucid, but I think it's still a long road to recovery."

"Give him my best, okay? Any vampire who risks his hide to save a fellow Slayer gets a 'get-out-of-dusting-free' card from me. At least until he starts munching people again, but I guess you got that covered?"

"I will behave myself, promise!"

"Never said anything about that, B. Just make sure to keep the happiness below perfect, okay? Then we're five by five."

Buffy laughed as Faith and Arcee drove off.

---------------------------------

"Mr. Trick, how good to see you again," Mayor Richard Wilkins greeted his guest. "How goes the investigation."

"It has proven quite interesting," Trick said, sitting in front of the mayor's desk. "Did you known that our little Slayer Faith has made some very interesting friends? Big, alien robot friends?"

Wilkins' smile never wavered, but Trick could smell the change in the man opposite him. The good-natured politician was but a front, after all, and Trick was getting closer to seeing the real man (if man he was) underneath.

"Ah, yes. Our illustrious visitors from outer space. I loved watching those science fiction serials back in the day, I tell you. I always adored that Ming fellow especially. Always up to no good."

Trick wasn't fooled by the jolly act, but didn't allow anything to show on his face, either.

"Is it safe to assume that this 'Optimus' who is in possession of the object you seek is also an alien robot?"

Wilkins sighed deeply, sitting down in his own chair.

"Quite possibly, yes. I have never met the fellow myself, mind you, but it is likely."

"And you saw no reason to tell me this when we first met," Trick stated.

Wilkins gave him a smile. "My dear Mr. Trick. If I had told you that you would have to go up against towering alien robots of considerable power, would you have taken the job?"

Trick considered this, then conceded the point. "Probably not."

"See? There you have it. Now! Have you found out anything more?"

Leaning back, Trick folded his hands and nodded. "I hear that a certain resident of Sunnydale will possibly be visiting Optimus' home base in the very near future. It might just be possible to, as the saying goes, hitch a ride."

"Splendid," Wilkins exclaimed. "Very good, Mr. Trick. Keep me informed. I love getting good news."

Trick rose to leave, but turned at the door. "By the way, Mr. Mayor, considering the opposition I will be facing, I am sure you understand that I will have to double my fee."

For a moment Wilkins looked less than pleased, but then the mask slipped back into place.

"A 50 percent increase, Mr. Trick. And we will part as friends."

The vampire nodded a moment later. "Always a pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise, Mr. Trick. Likewise."

---------------------------------

Faith and Arcee drove down the Sunnydale streets at a leisured pace. For long minutes the two friends just shared a companionable silence as the landscape streaked past them.

"Faith?" Arcee asked eventually. "How are you feeling?"

"Took you long enough to ask me that," Faith answered. "Well, I'm not exactly sure. I mean, after we beat Kakistos last time I felt... lighter. But there was still this knowledge in my head that he'd be back and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd be so lucky next time."

"You beat him again, Faith," Arcee reminded her. "And you did it all by yourself. I'm sure Clarice would be proud."

Thinking of her dead Watcher brought a tear to Faith's eye. "I hope so. But to answer your question... well, knowing that Kakistos is gone for good this time, it makes me feel... free, I guess. Like I finally have something like a future ahead of me again."

Arcee could feel the bittersweet tinge of that statement. Slayers were notoriously short-lived, she knew. And though Faith seldom let it show, Arcee knew that it bothered her.

"A long, long future," Arcee told her. "We are bonded, you and I, remember? And I am firmly committed to making sure that you become the longest-lived Slayer ever, okay? And don't you dare make me foresworn, little girl. An Autobot's word is her bond."

Faith laughed. "Okay, I'll do my best."

They arrived at Rupert Giles' apartment building and Faith climbed off Arcee. She was no longer staying in the Watcher's guest bedroom. Giles had managed to arrange for her to stay in one of the other apartments and the Autobots were picking up the bill. Ty was playing the stock market in her spare time and so the alien robots weren't lacking any cash.

"Think you can do me a favour, though, biker girl?" Faith asked as she walked towards her door.

"Sure, Faith. What is it?"

Faith winked at her. "Remember that you did it first, okay?" With that cryptic comment she disappeared inside.

"What was that all about?" Arcee wondered.

Twenty minutes later Arcee understood very well what Faith had been talking about, as the spark alignment was now active and Arcee was given a vivid demonstration of how exactly sexual intercourse worked among humans.

"Payback's a bitch," the Autobot mumbled, unsuccessfully trying to dispel the images of Faith having lots of fun with some unknown boy out of her cortex.

ON TO THE EPILOGUE


	32. The Boys Are Back in Town, Epilogue

**The Boys Are Back in Town  
Epilogue**

---------------------------------**  
**

_Author's Note: The quote in this chapter is from John Milton's Paradise Lost_

---------------------------------_  
_

The alien spaceship entered Earth's atmosphere at a steep angle. The re-entry heat would have torn every man-made craft to splinters, but man had had no hand in the creation of this object. A burning trail of super-heated air was the only sign of the craft's arrival, no radar could pick it up. And even if someone had spotted it with the naked eye, they'd only have seen a burning object falling into the ocean. A meteor, surely. What else could it possibly have been.

Several hundred meters beneath the waves the alien ship levelled out and its automated systems came online. It was time to rouse its passenger, who had been put into stasis for the journey to preserve precious energy. But first to find a form fitting this new planet.

Sophisticated scanning devices emerged from the ship's hull and took notice of the surroundings. The planet was mostly water. And while the dominant species of the planet utilised machinery in myriad forms, the computer judged it more prudent for stealth purposes to select an organic form.

A suitable form was found and scanned. The scanning results were loaded into the stasis pod. The figure inside was reformatted and received a complete upload of all relevant information regarding this world. Memory data tracks were brought back online and the laser core became active. Consciousness returned.

"This is the place then," the restored Cybertronian said to no one in particular, bringing his slumbering systems online one by one. "Here to find our destiny, for better or worse. To regain what was lost or lose what little we have left."

Rising from the stasis pod, he walked toward one of the viewing ports of the ship and observed the spectacle of the deep sea for a moment. Appreciation for the raw beauty of this untamed environment was not foreign to him.

"It has all come down to this," he continued. "A final reckoning with those who would make us slaves. May the Fittest survive."

Closing his optics, he quickly scanned the assembled data the ship had downloaded into his cortex before bringing him awake. It had only had a few minutes to pick up as much as it could from the electronic chatter that surrounded this world at all times, but the new arrival found something to his liking.

"How such united force of gods, how such

As stood like these, could ever know repulse?

For who can yet believe, though after loss,

That all these puissant legions, whose exile

Has emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend

Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

"For this infernal pit shall never hold,

Celestial spirits in bondage, not the Abyss

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

Full counsel must mature: Peace is despaired.

For who can think submission? War then, war

Open or understood must be resolved"

A smile graced his metallic lips as the airlock was flooded with sea water. Soon he would feel the thrill of battle once more. Possibly for the last time, but he would rather go out in a blaze of glory than to fade away.

"Beast mode!"

The Predacon known as Sky-Byte transformed, his outer hull shifting to mimic organic material, and moments later a Great White Shark swam toward the western coast of the United States at great speed.

THE END

---------------------------------

**Next Time on "A Slayer Transformed":**

The series jumps the shark as a Predacon arrives on Earth to cause havoc. He's Sky-Byte, the baddest shark in town. And Faith's first Predacon encounter might well be her last. Tune in for "**The Advance Man**", the next exciting episode of "**A Slayer Transformed**".


	33. The Advance Man, p1 of 7

**A Slayer Transformed: The Advance Man  
**by Philip S.  
Rating: PG-13

**Author's Note**: Welcome to the fifth story arc of "A Slayer Transformed". Arcee and the 'Bots have gotten a taste of the Slayers' world. Now it's time for Faith, Buffy, and the Scoobies to get a taste of the Transformers' world.

On with the show:

**----------------------------**

**Previously on **_**A Slayer Transformed**_

Faith is the Vampire Slayer, Earth's chosen defender against the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. Arcee is an Autobot, member of an alien race of mechanoid shapeshifters, who have come to Earth to defend it against their enemies, the Predacons. When Faith came to the rescue of Arcee's commander Optimus Prime she was gravely wounded and the only way to save her was to link their sparks, the Autobot term for soul. Faith was saved, but the spark link led to a phenomenon called spark alignment, a permanent connection between Faith and Arcee.

Faith and Arcee travel to Sunnydale to meet Rupert Giles, a member of the Watchers Council, and Buffy Summers, the other Vampire Slayer. Sunnydale offers much more than that, though. An ancient Autobot fortress hides underground, but vanishes in an explosion before it can be explored. The Mayor of Sunnydale, an immortal sorcerer, knows things about the Transformers no human could possibly know. There is Angel, a vampire with a soul, which fascinates the Autobots. There is Mr. Trick, a vampire hired by parts unknown to acquire the Matrix, the Autobots' most sacred artefact. And finally there is the Predacon known as Sky-Byte, newly arrived on Earth.

**----------------------------**

**The Advance Man  
Chapter 1 of 7: Patrol Duty**

The Autobot known as Hot Rod was young by the standards of his race, only several thousand years old. As his name implied he was also something of a hothead, apt to jump into danger at the drop of a hat rather than thinking things over. His temper had mellowed somewhat in thousands of years of war, but he was still the same at the core. He liked to show off, loved daring stunts, and considered himself the sleekest thing on any planet fortunate enough to be graced with his presence.

His choice of camouflage reflected his personality. He currently sported the shape of a red sports car, sleek, fast, showy. It had, in fact, taken only a minor amount of modifications to adapt his alternate mode to Earth. Cybertronian sports cars didn't look that different from the Earth variety.

Currently Hot Rod was doing patrol duty in the north-western part of the North American continent. It was mostly boring duty, but despite his flamboyance Hot Rod always did his duty. So boring patrols it was. At last the wide open highways in this part of the human world allowed him to have a little fun racing.

At the moment he was speeding along the coast at more than 300 miles per hour, carefully keeping an eye on his scanners. He didn't want any encounters with local law enforcement, after all. Of course that wasn't the only thing he was keeping an eye out for. The whole reason for the Autobots' presence here was the impending arrival of the Predacons, a splinter group of the defeated Decepticon army that was apt to cause trouble for the primitive inhabitants.

Hot Rod had only been on Earth for a few days now, being transferred here when Optimus Prime, commander of the Autobots, had increased the strength of his task force. Of course the main reason why Hot Rod had sought this assignment was a certain sleek and sexy fembot that was currently residing in a small human town called Sunnydale, only a few hundred miles from here. Still, he was here to do a job and that he did. He respected Optimus Prime and was not about to disappoint him.

"Anomaly detected," his internal systems suddenly chirped, causing him to slow down.

"What kind of anomaly," he queried, channelling more power to his sensors.

Cybertronians were equipped with a wide range of sensors, including infrared, echo probes, magnetic anomaly detectors and others. Currently it was his sonar system that was calling for attention. It had detected a rather large shape only several hundred meters off the coast he was driving along.

Quickly he accessed his database on indigenous creatures and compared the shape he'd detected to the contents. A shark, he concluded a moment later. A Great White Shark, to be precise, judging by its size and shape. While these underwater predators weren't exactly a common sight according to his data, there was nothing really unusual about it being here.

Nothing except the fact that it was swimming along at more than 200 miles per hour. Hot Rod wasn't exactly a zoological expert, but he rather doubted any indigenous life form could reach such speeds, especially underwater.

"Hot Rod to base," he opened up a channel. "Possible Predacon sighting. Pursuing to investigate."

"Understood," Ty, the Autobot base computer replied. "Report back the moment you have confirmation. Back-up is standing by."

Hot Rod smiled. The day he'd need back-up to handle a single Decepticon...

Increasing his speed, Hot Rod edged closer to the waterline and brought all his active scanners online. Oh yeah, that thing was going fast. Sensors still called it an organic shape, but Cybertronians had perfected the art of camouflage, after all. Most of the times they preferred to hide in technological disguises, such as the car mode Hot Rod sported, but they were fully capable of impersonating organic shapes as well.

Despite the lack of hard evidence, Hot Rod was quite certain that he was looking at a Predacon. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

**----------------------------**

The Predacon known as Sky-Byte cursed his luck. Of course they were Autobots on this world, he had known as much. Still, it was a big world and there couldn't be more than a handful of those do-gooders here. What were the odds that one of them would be patrolling along the same coast he was currently travelling towards?

"Primus decides to test my mettle early, it seems," he murmured to himself. "So be it. Let us see if victory has softened the skills of the Autobot soldiers any."

He was clearly picking up the active sensor probes of the Autobot now. Maybe he should have restricted his speed to what the Earth creature he was impersonating was capable of, but time was of essence. There was little doubt the Autobot was on to him already, so he needed to take care of this quickly before any reinforcements arrived.

Activating his combat systems, he changed course to head directly for the coast.

**----------------------------**

Everything happened pretty fast. Hot Rod's target changed course to head directly toward them. A tell-tale crackle in his com system told him that the Predacon (because what else could it be at this point) was jamming his communications. Well, not that he'd intended to call in any back-up anyway. Then the time for thinking was over.

The waters exploded outwards and a great white shape shot out of the blue-green depths and directly towards him. Hot Rod hit the breaks, threw his car shape into a sharp spin, and transformed at the exact moment he began to tilt over. A moment later a large robot shape flipped over the ground and metal feet found traction in the sandy ground. Hot Rod emerged in a crouched pose, his laser rifle at the ready.

The white shape passed through the spot he would have occupied had he not performed his breakneck manoeuvre and continued on. Hot Rod expected it to either transform or simply crash into the sand, but neither happened. The Predacon did not touch ground at all, but rather banked in mid-air and came around for another pass at him.

"Great," Hot Rod mumbled. "He can swim AND fly."

One of the major advantages most Decepticons had always had over the Autobots was the fact that many of them could fly. The Autobots had flyers of their own, but not nearly as many. They had originally been created for building and maintenance, after all, so flying hadn't been that important a skill for them. For military models such as the Decepticons, though, flight was a major asset. One his foe possessed, it seemed.

Hot Rod got his first good look at the Predacon as it turned to come at him again. So that was a Great White Shark then? It was as big as his car mode, probably bigger, and looked every bit the predator, including rows upon rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Real shark teeth would not be able to harm him, of course, but Hot Rod didn't doubt that titanium blades were hidden underneath, fully capable of rending his armour to shreds.

The Predacon surprised him again, though. Instead of trying to get up close and personal, the flying shark simply opened his jaws wide, revealing the missile launcher hidden inside. Hot Rod just managed to get out of the way as the first volley hit the exact spot he'd been in a nanosecond earlier.

"All right, I've had it," he yelled and opened fire. Damn, but the flying shark was fast. His first two shots missed entirely, the third and fourth only grazed him, leaving dark scorch marks on the imitated shark flesh but doing no real damage.

Before Hot Rod could continue the barrage the Predacon opened fire once again, another missile streaking toward the Autobot. Hot Rod evaded again, but the explosion knocked him off balance for a moment.

When he regained his equilibrium the Predacon had transformed and closed the distance. Hot Rod had but a moment to take in the shape of his attacker. Big, about a head taller than himself, mostly white and blue. The missile launcher that had been in the shark's jaw was now hanging off one arm, while the other arm sported a huge, curved blade. One that was streaking right towards him.

Hot Rod ducked, but not entirely in time. The blade cut across his chest and left a deep gap. Not deep enough to actually damage him, but it left him with one hell of a weak spot. Another hit there, either with the blade or a missile, and he'd probably be done for.

His rifle was no use at so short a distance, so he vanished it into subspace and sent an armoured fist right into his attacker's face. The Predacon stumbled back, giving Hot Rod the time to unpack a blade of his own. His left hand retracted into the arm casing and made way for a spinning buzz saw. Maybe not as impressive as the huge, almost sword-like weapon his opponent carried, but it could cut through battle armour just fine, thank you very much.

The Predacon had recovered and attacked with his blade again. Hot Rod met it with his own and the two weapons collided in a shower of sparks. The buzz saw cut almost a third of the way through the other blade before it jammed, leaving the two of them locked together. Hot Rod tried to throw another punch, but this time the Predacon was faster, lashing out with a thrust kick that hit Hot Rod's gut with the force of a runaway train.

Hot Rod found himself flat on his back and with the Predacon looming over him. He quickly rolled to the side, the boot that had been aimed at his face hitting the ground in a shower of sand. Hot Rod scissored the legs out from under the Predacon and sent him sprawling, following up with another kick to the gut.

Hot Rod grinned broadly. He hadn't had this good a fight in ages.

**----------------------------**

Unknown to the red Autobot his opponent was experiencing almost the same emotions. It had indeed been too long since Sky-Byte had enjoyed battle of this nature: Just two warriors, one on one, may the fittest survive. Unfortunately his sense of duty was quickly reminding him that he was not here for his own enjoyment. He was on a strict time table and taking out this Autobot, competent warrior that he was proving himself to be, would simply take too long.

Making use of a short break in the exchange of blows, Sky-Byte jumped back and transformed back into his beast mode, instantly activating his hover jets and launching into the air. He picked up the indignant cry of his Autobot opponent, who was yelling at him to come back and finish the fight.

Would that he could, but there were more important matters to attend to than fighting for his own enjoyment. His sensors quickly located the nearest native settlement, a small village with only several hundred humanoid life signs, and aimed one of his long-range missiles at its center. A heartbeat later the missile launched and streaked away towards its target.

"My missile will destroy a close-by human settlement, Autobot," he told his opponent, who was trailing him on the ground. "Many people will die. Unless you stop it."

A grim look appeared on the face of his opponent and Sky-Byte knew exactly what was going through his mind. It was a tactic the Decepticons had employed all too often during the war, exploiting the Autobots' inbuilt directive to protect all life. Sky-Byte himself didn't enjoy this tactic very much, but he had to admit that it was pretty effective most of the time.

"I'd hurry if I were you," Sky-Byte added.

For a moment it actually appeared as if the Autobot wanted to finish the fight, to the Pit with all those innocent human lives. Then he broke off, though, transformed into his car mode and went after the missile.

Calculating a better-than-even chance that the Autobot would successfully intercept the missile short of its target, Sky-Byte resumed his original heading and dove back into the ocean.

He would reach the settlement called Sunnydale within two hours.

TO BE CONTINUED


	34. The Advance Man, p2 of 7

**The Advance Man  
Chapter 2 of 7: ****Magic, Science, and Stuff In-Between**

**-----------------------------------**

"Oh my god, this is so incredibly cool. You realize the level of technology involved in actually created a stable space fold in order to shorten the distance between two distant locations to zero and bridge them in a single step? Why the math alone would take a century to properly figure out and I still don't have the slightest idea how you can even begin to measure the stress on the folded space and keep it from doing permanent damage to the space-time-fabric. And don't even get me started on how they actually manage to target the specific entry and exit points, I mean, obviously one end of the bridge is marked by the presence of the space bridge terminus, but the other is just hanging there in some location they've programmed in and how do you target a space fold anyway? Oh my god, this is so incredibly cool!"

Faith managed to keep a straight face and suppress the rather girlish giggle she'd felt building in the back of her throat. She was the big heap Vampire Slayer, after all. She didn't giggle, not even at the spectacle in front of her.

Said spectacle being a Jewish witch girl that was about to have a heart attack from sheer excitement and a sentient computer that was desperately trying to get a word in edge-wise. Plus a bunch of Autobots who were gaping in astonishment.

"I always thought humans required oxygen in order to survive," Arcee said, dumbfounded. "How can she breathe without ever ceasing to talk?"

Faith shook her head. The giggle she could suppress, but the big, broad grin on her face was proving insurmountable. Five minutes since Willow had arrived in Autobot headquarters under Tokyo by way of the space bridge and she hadn't stopped talking since.

"Xander's gonna be so jealous," the girl continued, oblivious to the reactions of those around her. "He wanted to see more of the giant robots, too, and..., well, he did see Arcee and X-Brawn and I think he caught a glimpse at Prowl and Hot Rod, too, but it's different seeing them, I mean you, here in this huge base and wow, this place really is huge, but that makes sense, doesn't it? You being so tall, you'd need high ceilings and stuff in order to not bump your head and..."

Faith finally took pity on the 'bots and quickly slapped a hand on Willow's mouth, cutting off the witch's flow of words for the moment.

"Breathe, Red," she told the Sunnydale Scooby, "and let the 'bots get some words in, too, okay?"

"Okay," Willow mumbled through the hand on her mouth, blushing red in embarrassment.

"Thank you, Faith," Ty, the Autobots' base computer, said. "Now, Willow, I just wanted to thank you for coming. Faith tells us that you are the one responsible for giving a spark to the vampire Angel by magical means."

"Right," Willow said after Faith had removed her hand. "The soul restoration, biggest spell I ever did. So scary, too. I got white eyes and started talking in a language I didn't recognise at first and certainly couldn't speak and then..."

Faith held her mouth close again. "Okay, Red. Ground rules! You don't babble my robot friends to death or I will keep shutting you up."

"Sorry," Willow mumbled.

"Okay, so why don't you start by telling Ty the story from the beginning and let her get in some questions, okay? And afterwards I'm sure she'll be happy to answer a few of your questions about the whole sentient robot thing, got me?"

Willow nodded happily and Faith let her go. A moment later she groaned. At what point exactly had she become the responsible one? She'd sounded like that teacher she'd had in junior High.

"Can I ask something first?" Willow asked, looking at Ty and the Autobots. "You always talk about sparks, not souls. I mean, I get that they're supposed to be the same thing, but... I've gotten a feeling for souls ever since that soul spell, and... is there any way for me to get a... feel for a spark? You know, for comparison?"

"I think we can handle that," Ty said. "Any of you boys volunteering?"

The three male Autobots present, Prowl, Sideburn, and Downshift, looked at each other for a moment, then Sideburn shrugged. "Sure, Red. Take a peek!"

The huge robot knelt down. His chest plating began to shift and transform, solid armour plating sliding aside to reveal the delicate inner workings. Technical knick-knacks Faith could not even hope to understand were visible for a moment, then shifted aside as well as a head-sized (human head, that is) metal cube emerged from deep within Sideburn's torso. The cube rotated sideways and one panel slid open.

Faith had to avert her eyes for a moment in order not to get blinded. Her Slayer senses immediately activated, homing in on the sparkling ball of energy that was now clearly visible inside Sideburn. Her thoughts drifted back to that first visit here, when the demons had attacked and somehow unleashed the power of the Matrix, the sacred artefact inside Optimus Prime's chest. She clearly remembered the golden light, how it had touched her and made her feel like God himself was smiling down at her.

Sideburn's spark was nowhere near as intense, but the general feeling was the same. She remembered what Arcee had told her about the Autobots' major religion, the Covenant of Primus. It said that the sparks of all Transformers were but tiny fragments of a much larger entity, Primus, also called the All-Spark. The Matrix was supposed to be a direct link to that universal life force, but every Transformer spark was also connected to it.

Faith had the feeling that this was one religion that had gotten it pretty much right.

"Wow," Willow muttered, one of her hands held out before her as she gazed at Sideburn's spark. Now that Faith's eyes had somewhat adjusted to the brightness, she could see it a bit better. The spark was a glowing, silvery bubble of energy with several tiny lights floating around inside it. Did human souls look like that, too, she wondered.

"Well," Ty asked. "How does an Autobot spark compare to a human soul?" There was genuine curiosity in the computer's voice. Faith knew that the Autobots could pick up the energy of human souls with the same kind of equipment that they used to scan for spark signatures, so there had to be at least some similarities.

"It's... it's like a soul, but different," Willow said, the words distracted as she was still staring at the spark. "It's like... human souls are so... diffuse. Hard to see, harder to grasp. You know they're there, but you can only see them from the corner of your eye. This... it's so... there! So... solid!"

Faith was getting the feeling that it was going to take some time yet before Willow and Ty managed to speak a common language when it came to magic and science. Faith had never been into either, really, she relied on her instincts.

It's what had first made her notice Optimus Prime when he'd still been hidden in vehicle form, it's what enabled her to pick out Autobots from normal cars even when she didn't know the Autobot in question. They'd tried that out with Downshift, an Autobot Faith hadn't previously met, and Faith had spotted him immediately.

"We know that human souls oscillate on a different frequeny than Autobot sparks do," Ty explained to Willow. "With Autobots the spark is a physical presence, protected inside a spark chamber. With humans and other organic creatures the spark is more of an energy field that suffuses their entire body, but does not have any sort of visible presence."

Sideburn resealed his spark inside his torso and Willow blinked, coming out of the semi-trance seeing it had put her in.

"Wow," she said again. "That was... it was ten times more intense than the feeling I had when I put Angel's soul in the orb. That was just... wow."

Faith tuned them out as Ty and Willow began their discussion in earnest. The topic was interesting, no doubt, but the technicalities didn't interest her much. As far as she was concerned it didn't matter if it was a big ball of twinkly lights or something invisible that only her Slayer senses managed to pick up. Alive was alive.

"You planning on hanging around for what I figure is gonna be one long, long talk?" she asked Arcee.

"I don't think so. Let them hash it out, I can download everything from Ty after she's finished and has... how would you humans say... written the Readers' Digest version."

Faith laughed. "Then let's head out, biker girl. I'm sure we can find something to occupy ourselves with while..."

"Global space bridge activation detected," Ty's voice suddenly came from the speakers. "Access codes accepted. Hot Rod identified. Opening space bridge terminus."

Faith didn't need a spark alignment to see how Arcee brightened up upon hearing these words. Hot Rod was her boyfriend, if such a human term could be applied to a huge alien robot. The two were an item, even if Faith was still a bit uncertain about the mechanics of the whole thing. Cybertronians didn't have genders as humans understood them, after all, and had, as Faith had once put it, no such parts. Still, she knew from a rather disturbing flaring of the spark alignment that Arcee and Hot Rod still managed to have lots of fun between them.

Arcee quickly made her way towards the space bridge terminus, followed by Faith. Hot Rod had been on Earth for only a few days and the two of them hadn't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together. They had to steal their moments where they could.

Faith entered the terminus room behind Arcee, a smart alec remark already on her lips, but she forgot it as she caught her first look at Hot Rod.

"Damn, you been in a traffic accident?"

Hot Rod's red paint job was scratched in multiple places, his metal hide sported several painful-looking wounds. Energon was dripping from several of them, the Cybertronian equivalent to blood. The right side of his body was also covered in soot. He kinda looked like Optimus Prime had, come to think of it, after he'd been ambushed by demons in a burning building.

"Hot Rod?" Arcee asked, her voice full of worry.

"Hi, gorgeous," he said, but the words were pained. "Need to see the big bot. We got problems."

TO BE CONTINUED


	35. The Advance Man, p3 of 7

**The Advance Man  
Chapter 3 of 7: First Encounter**

**--------------------------------------**

Faith stood at the edge of the dark waters, her eyes narrowed, her senses cranked up as high as they went. Sunnydale's harbour area wasn't exactly vast, but it was still big enough to make covering it completely a difficult matter. Currently half of the Autobots' Earth-based task force was patrolling the industrial sector of Sunnydale, keeping a look out for the Predacon Hot Rod had encountered.

No one believed it a coincidence that he'd been on a course leading here when Hot Rod picked him up. Not after that Sweep thing and the underground Autobot fortress. No, Sunnydale it was.

Faith and Arcee had split up, hoping to cover more ground that way. Faith had also informed Buffy, the other Vampire Slayer, and her friends of what might be coming their way. Reluctantly Buffy had agreed to keep an eye on the rest of Sunnydale and leave the harbour area, the most likely place for this sea-bound Predacon to turn up, to the Slayer who had more experience with things robotic and alien.

Having heard a lot of tales about the Decepticons, of whom the Predacons were a splinter group, Faith was both looking forward to and dreading finally meeting one in the flesh, so to speak. Mostly because she was remembering her encounter with the Sweep. It had felt... evil to her. Evil and supernatural. The Autobots didn't feel that way. Given that the Sweeps were not exactly your run-of-the-mill Cybertronians, both the 'bots and she were anxious to find out whether or not that feeling was present in 'regular' Decepticons as well.

"Anything yet?" Prowl's voice came over the comlink the 'bots had provided her with. He was in charge of this operation as per Optimus Prime's orders. Faith didn't consider herself under Prime's command, but given that they were dealing with a heavily armed robot from outer space who apparently didn't have any qualms about targeting innocents to get his way, she was content to defer to him in this matter. Grudgingly.

"Nothing yet," she called in, listening as the other Autobots reported more of the same.

"Maybe he isn't coming here after all," Downshift said. "Hot Rod wasn't exactly in the best of shape when he made his report. He could have gotten the heading mixed up."

Hot Rod had taken quite a licking, both from his fight against the Predacon as well as his interception of the missile that had threatened to destroy a small nearby settlement. The worst thing -for Hot Rod, that was- was that he was a bit too banged up to participate in this operation. Faith could understand him. She'd want another crack at the Predacon as well if she'd been in his shoes.

"Ty confirmed the readings taken from Hot Rod's scanners," Arcee reminded Downshift. "Unless the Predacon changed course somewhere along the coast, he should be here at any time now."

Having a global space bridge network to work with really cut down on the travel time. Hot Rod had gone from the North American coast to Tokyo to make his report in a matter of minutes and the 'bots had moved out to Sunnydale within half an hour afterwards, crossing the distance in no time. The Predacon, bound to more conventional means of travel, would still be swimming.

A swimming robot in the shape of a shark, Faith mused. Just when she'd started getting used to robots that mimicked vehicles...

Sideburn was saying something along the comlink when his voice was suddenly lost to static. For a second Faith considered a simple malfunction, but quickly banished the thought. Cybertronian technology didn't easily malfunction and Hot Rod had told how the Predacon had jammed his communications during the battle.

He was here somewhere.

Faith concentrated on the spark alignment between Arcee and her. They couldn't exactly communicate across their link, but impressions could be conveyed. She picked up Arcee's anxiety and anticipation; apparently her partner had drawn the same conclusion she had. But she didn't think Arcee had located him yet.

Her senses stretched outward, looking for that ominous feeling she'd gotten from the Sweep or, failing that, the strange tingling she always received from the 'bots. Her range wasn't nearly as big as that of the 'bots' sensors, but at least she couldn't be jammed by any kind of high-tech equipment.

There were weak sensations from the east, where she knew Arcee and Downshift were, as well as a barely-there echo from the south, which was where Sideburn and Prowl had to be. And... bingo! Something straight ahead, where there was nothing but water.

She quickly conveyed her findings across the spark alignment as best as she could, even as she started moving towards the nearest pier. She wasn't a fool. There was no way she'd take on the Predacon single-handed, but if she could nail down his location and get Arcee on him, they'd double-team him like they had the Sweep. Besides, a few laser shots from Arcee's rifle would clue the other 'bots in on their whereabouts pretty fast, jamming or no jamming.

It would be a nice change of pace to actually outnumber the bad guy for once.

Arcee was coming closer, she could feel it, even as her keen eyes could make out some sort of moving shape under the water. Got you now, she smirked internally. Focusing her other senses, she tried to get a solid reading. None of that ominous badness she'd gotten from the Sweep, but a definite tingle. Not quite like that of the Autobots, but close.

She moved closer still.

**--------------------------------------**

Sky-Byte was unsettled. This was supposed to have been a simple reconnaissance mission. Check out the target area, figure out if the objective was present or not, then return to make his report. Simple. Easy. Well, if thousands of years of civil war had taught him one thing, it was that there was no such thing as an easy mission. And no plan survived first contact with the enemy.

Having been discovered by the Autobot meant that his cover was compromised. And even though there was no concrete evidence, he had to assume that they knew where he was going and what he was hoping to find there. Always best to assume the worst case scenario, after all. So he remained underwater as he reached the area known as Sunnydale and did passive scans first.

Autobot scanners lit up on his internal displays. They were here, at least four of them, and they were looking for him. Well, that made his mission a little more complicated. A part of him would relish the challenge of taking on four Autobots at the same time, but it would almost certainly mean the failure of his mission, which just wouldn't do. No, it seemed he had to improvise.

He was still considering alternatives when he noticed one of the indigenous life forms coming directly towards him along one of the piers. He almost dismissed the presence, figuring the native had spotted his shape in the water and came to investigate. But eons of war had drilled it into him to better be safe than sorry, so he did a short scan of the figure.

Sky-Byte didn't have eyebrows, but if he'd had them, they'd be raised right now. The human, a female, carried a weapon of Cybertronian design on her back. Now his curiosity was piqued.

Maybe it was time to introduce himself to the natives.

**--------------------------------------**

Faith was one of the most powerful and dangerous human beings on Earth and had encountered her fair share of scary creatures. She was also a human girl, though, and some fears were ingrained into all human beings, handed down from generations past and completely separate from any and all rational thought.

So when a car-sized Great White Shark exploded forth from the Sunnydale harbour waters and arced directly toward her, jaws wide open, Faith did what most human beings would have done in her position. She froze, her eyes wide, fear paralyzing her body.

Thankfully that paralysis didn't last more than a heartbeat and then Faith's Slayer reflexes kicked in, propelling her sideways before her mind had even begun to process the events. Unfortunately sideways meant right into the water and the dark liquid swallowed her whole, even as the impact of the shark reduced the pier she'd just been standing on to so much kindling.

Faith broke the surface of the water, gasping for air, and looked around for her attacker. Okay, maybe heading out onto the water to confront a shark-shaped alien robot hadn't been the smartest move ever. Human beings weren't built to fight in water, but her enemy undoubtedly was. She had to get out and fast.

Pouring on every bit of speed and strength she had, Faith began swimming toward the shore. Her speed would have made an Olympian envious, but it still wasn't a match for an underwater predator. The shore line was still a good distance away when Faith felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. A look over her shoulder gave her a glimpse of a huge jaw filled with rows upon rows of jagged teeth.

Suddenly a crimson laser blast slammed right into that open jaw, tearing through the imitated flesh within and revealing the gleaming metal underneath. The Predacon veered off, roaring in pain, and Faith looked forward to see a very welcome sight.

"Biker girl," she greeted her partner. "Just in the nick of time!"

The Predacon had vanished underneath the water again, which left Faith enough time to pour on the speed and reach the shore. Arcee pulled her out and set her back on solid ground. Faith suppressed the urge to fall on her knees and kiss the concrete. She wouldn't go swimming again any time soon, that was for sure.

"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't confront him alone," Arcee chided her, keeping her optics on the water.

"Hey, I didn't confront him. He just jumped out of the water and came after me. I didn't do anything."

"What is it with trouble always finding you?"

Faith shook water out of her hair, then drew her Cybertronian sword from her back. She wasn't sure how much good it would do, but she'd not be caught off guard again tonight. With solid ground under her feet and Arcee by her side, she was confident she could handle Robo-Jaws.

Without warning a missile suddenly streaked out of the water and came right towards them. Arcee and Faith dove aside in opposite directions. The weapon whined past them and hit the warehouse behind them. The building went up in a big fireball, the concussion wave knocking Faith right off her feet. Instinct made her grab one of the metal poles situated along the side of the water, otherwise she'd have been thrown right back into the ocean.

When the spots in front of her eyes cleared she saw that the Predacon had made good use of the confusion. He was on land and in robot mode already, standing about two heads taller than Arcee, and carrying a wicked sword in one hand. One which he obviously wanted to use to make fish kebab out of her partner.

Arcee didn't carry a sword, but she had something almost as good. She quickly extended metal batons from her two forearms, clicking them together into a large battle staff. Ducking under the first swing of her opponent, Arcee used her superior speed to drive the staff hard into the Predacon's mid-section, making him stumble back.

Faith found her own sword lying just a few feet away and picked it up, looking for an opening. Arcee and the Predacon were in the middle of an intricate dance of strikes, parries, and counter-strikes. She couldn't just wade in there. Odds were she'd be stomped. No, she needed to make this a quick and precise attack. Get in, do the damage, get out.

Carefully, so as not to distract Arcee in the middle of her fight, she accessed the spark alignment. It went active almost instantaneously. Faith found herself immersed in the flow of battle, Arcee's battle computer and her own tactical abilities meshing flawlessly. A moment later she was moving, sword at the ready, seeing an opening.

Leaping off the ground, she aimed her sword directly toward the knee joint of the Predacon, who was at this moment fully occupied parrying a vicious staff attack from Arcee, meaning he was putting his full weight down on that leg. Faith flashed forward, almost too fast to be seen.

Almost.

The Predacon was faster than his bulk suggested and quickly took a step back. It cost him, as Arcee's staff impacted against his shoulder with a devastating crunch, but it was preferable to having his knee taken out from under him. Faith stumbled forward, off-balance for a moment, and the Predacon took vicious advantage.

Faith's world exploded into pain as a metal foot the size of a vending machine hit her in the side. She was airborne and hit the ground a moment later without any idea where she was, clinging to consciousness by a thread. Instinctively she tried to shut down the spark alignment to keep Arcee from feeling her pain, but it was too late.

Arcee went to her knees as the pain arced across her link to Faith and shattered her concentration. Her staff slipped from her fingers as confused damage routines tried to assess the non-existent wound on her side.

"Interesting," Faith heard the Predacon say through the haze of pain.

The strange whirring sound she'd come to associate with a Cybertronian shifting shape reached her ears and she looked up, just in time to see the Predacon back in shark form, coming right towards her with his jaws wipe open.

Then everything turned black.

TO BE CONTINUED


	36. The Advance Man, p4 of 7

**The Advance Man  
Chapter 4 of 7: The Other Side**

--

Faith slowly regained consciousness, which also made her aware of the terrible ache that held her entire body in its grip. God, she didn't remember the last time she'd hurt so much. Probably after the first time Kakistos had gotten through with her. Then again, Kakistos hadn't kicked her with metal feet the size of a vending machine.

The last thing she remembered was the Predacon jumping forward to... well, kill her, she'd assumed. She was quite certain that the image of the giant jaws with the many teeth coming toward her would haunt her nightmares for quite some time to come. No, she'd never go swimming again, that much was for sure.

Seeing as she was obviously still alive, the Predacon had apparently not killed her. So maybe it was time to open her eyes and find out where she was.

She was in a room that was obviously built to Cybertronian dimensions. Just like during her visits to Autobase, she felt like a doll. The ceiling was easily forty feet above her, if not more, and the table she was currently on was about ten feet high. Oh, and she was currently sitting underneath a glass bowl. Well, probably not glass, but transparent.

Trapped like a rat.

"Good! You are awake," a voice boomed.

Faith turned to look towards its source and saw two things. Number one was the Predacon, now back in robot mode, striding towards her with an unholy gleam in his eyes. The other, though, was potentially even more interesting.

So much for her intent never to go swimming again.

The big view port behind the Predacon showed nothing but ocean. Faith figured she was somewhere under the sea - made sense for a guy who transformed into a shark, she guessed - which meant getting out of here would be... challenging.

Deciding not to let her nervousness show, Faith stood up and looked the Predacon directly in the eye.

"You got a name, ugly?" she asked, challenging.

The Predacon seemed to smirk. "The name's Sky-Byte, meat puppet. What is your designation of choice?"

"I'm Faith. So, any particular reason why you decided to bring me to your humble abode under the sea?"

The Predacon, Sky-Byte, took a seat beside the table, so his head was now more or less at the same level as Faith. He folded his hands underneath his chin, looking to all the world like a scientist studying a rather interesting insect.

"I am here to gather knowledge, little Faith. Knowledge about this planet, knowledge about our objective, knowledge about anything that might impede our mission. The fact that the Autobots are here is a... complication. The fact that the Autobots are apparently working with the natives is... intriguing."

Faith laughed to cover her growing nervousness. "So what? You think I'll tell you about the Autobots? Please! You got the wrong broad if you're looking for a stool pigeon."

Sky-Byte laughed as well, obviously amused. "Ah, I see you have been taken in by the 'noble' Autobots. What have they told you, Faith? The usual tales about how they're protecting the universe from the evil Decepticons? About the cruel war that we started, ending their precious Golden Age? How we spilled the Energon of millions of innocent robots for our own amusement?"

Faith was a bit stunned. Yes, that was pretty much what the Autobots had told her about the Decepticons. Only it hadn't sounded so... trite then.

"Are you saying they lied?" Faith asked, disbelieving.

Sky-Byte studied her closely. "There are lies, truths, and half-truths, little Faith. Those most skilled can mix the three to the point where they are completely indistinguishable and you can convey any message you want without ever resorting to downright falsehood."

"You are a pretty wordy fellow yourself, aren't you?"

Sky-Byte laughed, almost bellowed. He seemed greatly amused.

"I haven't brought you here to discuss ancient history with you, little flesh girl. But answer me this one question: Does a perfect society produce revolutionaries? If Cybertron was such a perfect place before, why did so many flock to the banners of war?"

It might have been an interesting question, but Faith was rapidly getting tired of this guy. Her thoughts strayed to Arcee. Was her Autobot partner still alive? Probably. They couldn't know what the spark alignment between them would cause if one of them died, but Faith doubted it would have been pleasant. So the fact that she was here and more or less all right had to mean that Arcee was, too. Right?

Concentrating, she tried to access the spark alignment. The only thing she got, though, was a vague impression of Arcee's presence... somewhere. She just hoped the biker girl was all right.

"What do you want from me?" she asked Sky-Byte, keeping up her concentration.

"No longer interested in Cybertronian history? Ah, just as well. You are right. Let us get to the matter at hand."

He leaned forward, looking more closely at her.

"You and the Autobot I fought, you are connected somehow. She shared your pain. I have only ever seen such a phenomenon between spark-aligned warriors. I have never heard of any Cybertronian bonding with an organic being in such a way. Is that what happened to you, little one?"

Faith just looked back at him. She certainly didn't intend to answer any of his questions.

"I think that is what happened," Sky-Byte continued when she didn't answer. "And you know what that means? It means you have made my job somewhat easier."

He stood and walked over to a nearby console, picking up a complicated-looking electronic gadget.

"Interrogation techniques have come a long way during the course of the war. It is always important to know what your enemies do not want you to know. At the same time, of course, methods to resist interrogation have progressed just as far. I happen to know that most Autobots in positions where they might have access to sensitive data are equipped with a full range of countermeasures to prevent anyone from accessing their memory banks.

"When it became apparent that the Autobots had discovered my presence and would impede my mission here, I intended to capture one of them and find out how much they know. It would have been a long and complicated process with no guarantee of success."

He came back to the table, setting the device down next to Faith's glass prison. "Organic beings, though, are so much simpler to interrogate. Your biochemical memories are a bit more complicated to interpret than our own electronic data streams, yes, but the upside is that there are no known ways to shield organic brains from cerebral probes."

Faith didn't like the term "cerebral probe" at all.

"Interrogating you will be far easier than it would be with any given Autobot, Faith. And given the fact that I believe you are spark aligned with that Autobot I fought... well, there is a very good chance that access to your memories will also give me access to hers."

This wasn't good, Faith mused. Not good at all. She didn't say a word, but she feared that Sky-Byte was quite correct in his assessment. After all, Arcee and she had shared memories across the alignment more than once already. Just fragments, always unintentional, but the connection was there. And so far neither Arcee nor she had successfully managed to shut it down once it got going, at least not before whatever memory they had shared had played itself out.

Nope, this was definitely not good.

"We should hurry, of course," Sky-Byte continued in conversational tone, oblivious to her thoughts. "After all, there is also the possibility of your spark-bonded partner being able to track your whereabouts. I have no idea whether she can sense your presence with so much ocean between you and her, but there is no sense in taking chances, is there?"

He leaned closer. "So what say, little Faith, that we begin the process right away?"

Faith gulped. Really not good.

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
